CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is a newly identified prokaryotic immunity system against foreign genetic elements. In contrast to other cellular defense mechanisms (e.g. restriction-modification) CRISPR-mediated immunity is adaptive and can be programmed to protect cells against a particular bacteriophage or conjugative plasmid. In this review we describe general principles of CRISPR systems action and summarize known details of CRISPR systems from different microorganisms.