Gut Bacteria Adapt CRISPR Defenses

This is a news story, published by MSN, that relates primarily to MIT news.

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CRISPR defenses

Phys Org

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Microbiome study finds bacteria in human gut rarely update their CRISPR defense systems

Summary

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90% Informative

MIT study finds bacteria in human gut add new DNA sequences at a much slower rate than in the lab.

The findings suggest that the environment within the digestive tract offers fewer opportunities for bacteria to update their CRISPR system.

Bacteria in the human gut are vulnerable to infection from viruses called bacteriophages.

This finding raises the question of whether bacteria have more important defense systems.

Analyzing microbes' immune defenses may offer a way for scientists to develop targeted treatments that will be most effective in a patient.

"Bacteria-bacteria interactions can be a main contributor to the development of viral resistance," An-Ni Zhang says.

" One thing we can do is to study the viral composition in the patients, and then we can identify which microbiome species or strains are more capable of resisting those local viruses in a person".

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English

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