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With all the buzz around CRISPR, the gene-editing technique that has instigated many an ethical debate and one acrimonious patent dispute, it would be easy to mistake it for a recent human invention. It’s not. Bacteria invented CRISPR billions of years ago, as a defense against marauding viruses. The bacteria grab pieces of a virus’s genetic material and incorporate these fragments into their own DNA. In doing so, they memorize the identities of past enemies. They can then use the viral sequences to guide their own defensive enzymes.
Now, it seems that some viruses use the same trick. Bernard La Scola and Didier Raoult from Aix-Marseille University have found that some giant viruses have a CRISPR-esque immune system, which they use to defend themselves from other smaller viruses. It seems that the defenders steal the genes of the attackers, and use those ‘memorized’ sequences to tailor their own countermeasures.
Related on the SLP
This is the latest in a string of discoveries that show how unexpectedly crazy the viral world really is. In the last 13 years, scientists have found giant viruses that outsize bacteria, viruses that parasitize other viruses, and now viruses with immune systems that defend themselves against more viruses. Arms races, it seems, have truly gone viral.
Read full, original post: Viruses Have Their Own Version of CRISPR
