What is it about?
Bacterial immunity employs a diverse range of molecular mechanisms, many of which use DNA-scissors to cut unwanted DNA, including foreign viral and plasmid DNA. Here, we summarize our current understanding of these mechanisms, highlighting how these scissors specifically cut invading DNA rather than the bacterial host's own DNA.
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Why is it important?
This review discusses key considerations for the specificity requirements of DNA-targeting immune systems. Many of these systems, such as CRISPR-Cas and restriction modification systems, have become instrumental in biotechnology, therapeutics, and research applications due to the utility of their unique specificity requirements. Understanding how newly discovered DNA-targeting systems work may provide new insights into such applications, in addition to bacterial ecology and phage-mediated therapeutics.
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This page is a summary of: It’s not me, it’s you: Anti-phage nuclease specificity inside a bacterium, PLoS Pathogens, February 2026, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013959.
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