It acts as a sort of molecular fumigator to battle phages and plasmids. CRISPR-Cas9 has long been likened to a kind of genetic scissors, thanks to its ability to snip out any desired section of DNA ...

Surprising results from two independent research groups, recently published in the journal Cell, show that phage join forces to overcome bacteria’s CRISPR-based immune defenses. Improved understanding ...

An unexpected find has enabled important progress to be made in the battle against harmful bacteria. An international team of researchers, led by Professor Peter Fineran from the University of Otago, ...

Bacteria get invaded by viruses called phages. Scientists are studying how bacteria use CRISPR to defend themselves from phages, which will inform new phage-based treatments for bacterial infections ...

As the globe faces a rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria – making traditional antibiotics ineffective – specific viruses could offer a solution. Viruses called bacteriophages, or phages, target ...

Bacteriophages, or phages for short, may be too small to see without an electron microscope, but they have enormous therapeutic potential. Given the bacteria-killing capabilities of phages, the most ...

Bacteria combat phage infection using antiphage systems and many systems generate nucleotide-derived second messengers upon infection that activate effector proteins to mediate immunity. Phages ...

Cat1 monomers seen here in shades of pink and purple, while cA4 glueing the dimers to extend the filament are in orange. Every living creature on Earth needs to protect itself from things that would ...

In nature, the best-known CRISPR system, CRISPR-Cas9, cuts any RNA or DNA it recognizes as foreign, and thereby protects bacteria from viral attacks. Another CRISPR system, one that is relatively ...