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Feb 16, 2018

CRISPR-Cas9 may be a double-edged sword for bacteria

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

CRISPR-associated protein Cas9 (white) from Staphylococcus aureus based on Protein Database ID 5AXW. Credit: Thomas Splettstoesser (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0) A team of researchers with the Catholic University of America has found evidence that suggests a defense mechanism used by bacteria to ward off phage attacks might also be benefiting the phages. In their paper published on the open access site Science Advances, the group describes testing the impact of CRISPR-Cas9 on phages that infect Escherichia coli and what they found. In nature, CRISPR-Cas9 is a defense mechanism used by bacteria t…

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