Mobile CRISPR/Cas-mediated bacteriophage resistance in Lactococcus lactis.

ABSTRACT: Lactococcus lactis is a biotechnological workhorse for food fermentations and potentially therapeutic products and is therefore widely consumed by humans. It is predominantly used as a starter microbe for fermented dairy products, and specialized strains have adapted from a plant environment through reductive evolution and horizontal gene transfer as evidenced by the association of adventitious traits with mobile elements. Specifically, L. lactis has armed itself with a myriad of plasmid-encoded bacteriophage defensive systems to protect against viral predation. This known arsenal had not included CRISPR/Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated proteins), which forms a remarkable microbial immunity system against invading DNA. Although CRISPR/Cas sys

SUBMITTER: Millen AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3519859 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature