CRISPR associated diversity within a population of Sulfolobus islandicus.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Predator-prey models for virus-host interactions predict that viruses will cause oscillations of microbial host densities due to an arms race between resistance and virulence. A new form of microbial resistance, CRISPRs (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) are a rapidly evolving, sequence-specific immunity mechanism in which a short piece of invading viral DNA is inserted into the host's chromosome, thereby rendering the host resistant to further infection. Few studies have linked this form of resistance to population dynamics in natural microbial populations.

Methodology/principal findings

We examined sequence diversity in 39 strains of the archeaon Sulfolobus islandicus from a single, isolated hot spring from Kamchatka, Russia to determine

SUBMITTER: Held NL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2946923 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature