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Major bacterial lineages are essentially devoid of CRISPR-Cas viral defence systems
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Major bacterial lineages are essentially devoid of CRISPR-Cas viral defence systems
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Journal Article
Major bacterial lineages are essentially devoid of CRISPR-Cas viral defence systems
2016
Overview
Current understanding of microorganism–virus interactions, which shape the evolution and functioning of Earth’s ecosystems, is based primarily on cultivated organisms. Here we investigate thousands of viral and microbial genomes recovered using a cultivation-independent approach to study the frequency, variety and taxonomic distribution of viral defence mechanisms. CRISPR-Cas systems that confer microorganisms with immunity to viruses are present in only 10% of 1,724 sampled microorganisms, compared with previous reports of 40% occurrence in bacteria and 81% in archaea. We attribute this large difference to the lack of CRISPR-Cas systems across major bacterial lineages that have no cultivated representatives. We correlate absence of CRISPR-Cas with lack of nucleotide biosynthesis capacity and a symbiotic lifestyle. Restriction systems are well represented in these lineages and might provide both non-specific viral defence and access to nucleotides.
It is thought that CRISPR-Cas systems, which confer acquired immunity to phage and archaeal viruses, are widespread among bacteria and archaea. Here, Burstein
et al.
show that entire lineages of uncultivated microorganisms are essentially devoid of CRISPR-Cas systems.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
