Disabling a Type I-E CRISPR-Cas Nuclease with a Bacteriophage-Encoded Anti-CRISPR Protein.

ABSTRACT: CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-Cas adaptive immune systems are prevalent defense mechanisms in bacteria and archaea. They provide sequence-specific detection and neutralization of foreign nucleic acids such as bacteriophages and plasmids. One mechanism by which phages and other mobile genetic elements are able to overcome the CRISPR-Cas system is through the expression of anti-CRISPR proteins. Over 20 different families of anti-CRISPR proteins have been described, each of which inhibits a particular type of CRISPR-Cas system. In this work, we determined the structure of type I-E anti-CRISPR protein AcrE1 by X-ray crystallography. We show that AcrE1 binds to the CRISPR-associated helicase/nuclease Cas3 and that the C-terminal region of the anti-CRISPR prot

SUBMITTER: Pawluk A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5727412 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature