Pourcel Christine
Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France.
Biol Aujourdhui. 2017;211(4):247-254. doi: 10.1051/jbio/2018001. Epub 2018 Jun 29.
From 1987 and during the following 20 years, a few research teams exploring bacteria and archea genome sequences uncover the prokaryotic adaptative immune system made of the CRISPR sequence and associated cas genes. First believed to be similar to the eukaryote RNA interference system, CRISPR-Cas turned out to be unique and of an amazing genetic complexity. The comparative studies of CRISPR arrays and of cas, and later of microbiotes metagenomes allowed to propose an evolution scenario for these systems. The results demonstrate the importance of a naturalistic approach, without a priori, for the understanding of living organisms.
从1987年起及之后的20年里，一些研究团队在探索细菌和古菌的基因组序列时，发现了由CRISPR序列及相关cas基因构成的原核生物适应性免疫系统。CRISPR-Cas最初被认为与真核生物的RNA干扰系统相似，但后来发现它是独特的，且具有惊人的遗传复杂性。对CRISPR阵列和cas基因，以及后来对微生物群落宏基因组的比较研究，使得人们能够提出这些系统的进化假说。结果表明，一种没有先入之见的自然主义方法对于理解生物体非常重要。
