Selected Aspects Of The Crispr-Cas Biology And Applications

Abstract

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins are components of the adaptive immunity system, protecting against foreign DNA, which are present in many bacteria species. Recent years have brought extensive research on this system however, not all of its biological properties have been discovered so far. It was recently discovered that CRISPR-Cas can regulate the formation of biofilm and is closely associated with the DNA repair system in bacterial cells. It is also likely that some of the spacer sequences are complementary to short sequences in the bacterial genome, which may have an influence on regulation of bacterial genes, e.g. virulence factors. Besides, phages can synthesize anti-CRISPR genes, which could be of use in the future for the purpose of development of an alternative therapy against multi-drug resistant bacterial strains. Here we present an elementary characteristic of CRISPR-Cas system, including the structure and the brief mechanism of action, systematic classification and its importance for medicine and biotechnology issues. We would like to stress the huge potential of CRISPR-Cas by discussing the selected but varied aspects.

Keywords

• crispr
• cas
• bacterial pathogenicity
• anti-crispr proteins
• genome editing