Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Quantitative Biosciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco , San Francisco, California 94143, United States.
ACS Chem Biol. 2018 Feb 16;13(2):417-423. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.7b00831. Epub 2018 Jan 17.
Bacteria are under constant predation from viruses, called bacteriophages (phages). This threat has driven the evolution of multiple defense systems, including the CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR associated genes) immune pathway. Phages are not passive bystanders in their CRISPR-mediated demise, however, as many have developed potent protein inhibitors of the bacterial adaptive immune system. Here, I review the work that led to the discovery of many distinct "anti-CRISPR" proteins. Furthermore, I outline how understanding their mechanisms of action has provided a suite of specific and high-affinity reagents to modulate and study CRISPR-Cas applications.
细菌一直受到病毒(称为噬菌体)的捕食。这种威胁促使多种防御系统进化,包括 CRISPR-Cas(成簇的规律间隔短回文重复序列和 CRISPR 相关基因)免疫途径。然而,噬菌体在 CRISPR 介导的灭绝中并非是被动的旁观者,因为许多噬菌体已经开发出针对细菌适应性免疫系统的强效蛋白抑制剂。在这里,我回顾了导致发现许多不同“抗 CRISPR”蛋白的工作。此外,我概述了了解它们的作用机制如何提供了一系列特定且高亲和力的试剂,以调节和研究 CRISPR-Cas 的应用。