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Scientists resolve debate over how many

bacteria fight off invaders
Date:

May 7, 2015

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Rockefeller University
Every inch of our body, inside and out, is oozing with
bacteria. In fact, the human body carries 10 times the
number of bacterial cells as human cells. Many are our
friends, helping us digest food and fight off infections, for
instance. But much about these abundant organisms, upon
which our life depends, remains mysterious. New research
finally cracks the code of a fundamental process bacteria

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finally cracks the code of a fundamental process bacteria

use to defend themselves against invaders.
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Bacteria illustration (stock image). Learning the details of how microbes

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Credit: zuki70 / Fotolia

Every inch of our body, inside and out, is oozing

with bacteria. In fact, the human body carries 10
times the number of bacterial cells as human cells.
Many are our friends, helping us digest food and
fight off infections, for instance. But much about
these abundant organisms, upon which our life
depends, remains mysterious. In research
reported May 7 in Cell, scientists at Rockefeller
finally crack the code of a fundamental process
bacteria use to defend themselves against
invaders.
For years, researchers have puzzled over conflicting results about the
workings of a type of immune system found in many species of bacteria.
Some data showed that, when a virus invaded a bacterial cell, this
mechanism -- known as type III CRISPR-Cas -- would target the virus's
DNA, preventing it from adopting the bacteria's machinery in order to copy
itself and infect more bacteria. But other experiments suggested type III
CRISPR-Cas could only disable a virus by cleaving the viral RNA.
Luciano Marraffini and Poulami Samai, both at Rockefeller, wanted to get to
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the bottom of this puzzle. In their experiments, Samai, a postdoctoral fellow,

tested the cleavage of DNA and RNA by the type III CRISPR-Cas system.
But she added a key ingredient no one else had before, a protein known
as RNA polymerase, which the cell uses to transcribe DNA to RNA. She and
Marraffini, head of the Laboratory of Bacteriology, saw that CRISPR-Cas
did, indeed, cleave the RNA produced from a virus's DNA -- but it would
also cleave the virus's DNA.
There are advantages to such a two-pronged system, says Marraffini.
Many viruses integrate into the genomes of the cells they infect and remain
dormant, he says, causing no harm. In fact, these viruses can be beneficial
to bacteria, by carrying toxins that help bacteria promote their own survival,
for instance. The diphtheria toxin, for instance, is secreted by a species of
bacteria, but the gene encoding the toxin comes from a virus. "By requiring
viruses to begin transcribing their DNA into RNA before disabling them, the
type III CRISPR-Cas system leaves dormant viruses intact, allowing them to
continue benefiting the bacteria that host them," he notes.
Learning the details of how microbes carry out their functions can have
important implications for health and science, Marraffini says. Besides
being an incredibly abundant form of life on the planet, fueling the health
and disease of every species and ecosystem, microbes have been the
source of a number of technological tools that have revolutionized science
and medicine.
"More than forty years ago, scientists discovered enzymes that cut DNA
from studying the viruses that infect bacteria, inspiring a new class of tools
that created a revolution in biomedicine," says Marraffini. Now, new
technology based on another type of CRISPR-Cas is leading another wave
in that revolution, allowing scientists to quickly and easily manipulate
genomes in ways they never could before. "This is a testament to how the
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basic biology of microbes can be very useful. Microbes are a crucial part of
biology on the planet, and it's important to understand how they work."

Handbook' for Penis

Worms

Story Source:

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Asteroid Trigger
Largest Lava Flows
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The above story is based on materials provided by Rockefeller

University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Submarine

1. Luciano Marraffini et al. Co-transcriptional DNA and RNA Cleavage

during Type III CRISPR-Cas Immunity. Cell, May 2015 DOI:
10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.027 show
Neanderthals
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Rockefeller University. "Scientists resolve debate over how many bacteria

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