Cas13 Helps Bacteria Play Dead when the Enemy Strikes

Senén D Mendoza; Joseph Bondy-Denomy

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2019.06.012

Cas13 Helps Bacteria Play Dead when the Enemy Strikes

Cell Host Microbe. 2019 Jul 10;26(1):1-2. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2019.06.012.

Authors

Senén D Mendoza¹, Joseph Bondy-Denomy²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94143.
² Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94143. Electronic address: [email protected].

Abstract

How RNA-targeting CRISPR-Cas13 functions as a phage defense system has been mysterious. Recently in Nature, Meeske et al. (2019) demonstrate that Cas13 provides potent immunity to dsDNA phages without cutting their genome. By sensing phage transcripts and destroying RNA nonspecifically to arrest the cell into dormancy, Cas13 provides herd immunity.

Cas13 Helps Bacteria Play Dead when the Enemy Strikes

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Abstract

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