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CRISPR

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

Synonyms

CRISPR/Cas; CRISPR/Cas9; CRISPR-Cas; CRISPR-Cas9

Definition

CRISPR is an acronym standing for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and refers to a genomic pattern found in bacteria and archaea of adjacent unique and repetitive alternating DNA fragments, constituting the genetic compound of an ancestral adaptive immune system used by prokaryotes to fight against bacteriophages and plasmids. A set of CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins, most with nuclease-type activities, represent the effector compound of this system. Currently, there are at least two classes, six types and 33 subtypes of CRISPR-Cas systems. About half of the bacteria and more than 80% of archaea carry at least one CRISPR-Cas system.

History

The acronym CRISPR was invented by Francis J.M. Mojica, a microbiologist from the University of Alicante (Spain) and was first used in a scientific publication in 2002 by Ruud Jansen and collaborators in Molecular Microbiology. Mojica was also the first...

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References and Further Reading

  • Barrangou R, Fremaux C, Deveau H, Richards M, Boyaval P, Moineau S, Romero DA, Horvath P (2007) CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in prokaryotes. Science (New York, NY) 315(5819):1709–1712

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  • Brouns SJ, Jore MM, Lundgren M, Westra ER, Slijkhuis RJ, Snijders AP, Dickman MJ, Makarova KS, Koonin EV, van der Oost J (2008) Small CRISPR RNAs guide antiviral defense in prokaryotes. Science (New York, NY) 321(5891):960–964

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  • Deltcheva E, Chylinski K, Sharma CM, Gonzales K, Chao Y, Pirzada ZA, Eckert MR, Vogel J, Charpentier E (2011) CRISPR RNA maturation by trans-encoded small RNA and host factor RNase III. Nature 471(7340):602–607

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  • Garneau JE, Dupuis MÈ, Villion M, Romero DA, Barrangou R, Boyaval P, Fremaux C, Horvath P, Magadán AH, Moineau S (2010) The CRISPR/Cas bacterial immune system cleaves bacteriophage and plasmid DNA. Nature 468(7320):67–71

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  • Hermans PW, van Soolingen D, Bik EM, de Haas PE, Dale JW, van Embden JD (1991) Insertion element IS987 from Mycobacterium bovis BCG is located in a hot-spot integration region for insertion elements in Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains. Infect Immun 59(8):2695–705

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  • Ishino Y, Shinagawa H, Makino K, Amemura M, Nakata A (1987) Nucleotide sequence of the iap gene, responsible for alkaline phosphatase isozyme conversion in Escherichia coli, and identification of the gene product. J Bacteriol 169(12):5429–33

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  • Jansen R, Embden JD, Gaastra W, Schouls LM (2002) Identification of genes that are associated with DNA repeats in prokaryotes. Mol Microbiol 43(6):1565–1575

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  • Mojica FJ, Juez G, Rodríguez-Valera F (1993) Transcription at different salinities of Haloferax mediterranei sequences adjacent to partially modified PstI sites. Mol Microbiol 9(3):613–621

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Lluis Montoliu

Authors
  1. Lluis Montoliu
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Correspondence to Lluis Montoliu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, University of Bordeaux, Pessac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  2. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    William M. Irvine

  3. Centro Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Univ. Autónoma de Madrid Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  4. Analytical-, Environm., Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB, Brussels, Belgium

    Philippe Claeys

  5. Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, WASHINGTON, DC, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  6. Radio Astronomy, Paris Observatory, Paris, France

    Maryvonne Gerin

  7. Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, Meudon, France

    Daniel Rouan

  8. International Space Science Institute, Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Tilman Spohn

  9. Centre Francois Viète, Universite de Nantes, Nantes, France

    Stéphane Tirard

  10. Innovaxiom, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

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Montoliu, L. (2022). CRISPR. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5558-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5558-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

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