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Microbiology

Bacteria get vaccinated

Nature volume 513, pages 175–176 (2014)Cite this article

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Infection by defective bacterial viruses that cannot replicate has now been found to be the key feature enabling bacteria to rapidly develop adaptive immunity against functional viruses.

Surviving viral infections is a necessary ability for most life forms. Adaptive immunity, in which invasive elements are captured by the cell, allowing subsequent recognition and destruction of related viruses, is crucial for overcoming such infections. As such, adaptive immunity drives evolution, selection and fitness. Although the antibody–antigen basis of mammalian adaptive immunity has been extensively characterized, its counterpart in archaea and bacteria — CRISPR–Cas immune systems — remains largely mysterious. Writing in Nature Communications, Hynes et al.1 describe how defective virus particles trigger immunization events by CRISPR–Cas systems, conferring adaptive immunity in the bacteria against related functional viruses.

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Figure 1: Immunity through attenuated viruses.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rodolphe Barrangou and Todd R. Klaenhammer are in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA.,

    Rodolphe Barrangou & Todd R. Klaenhammer

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  1. Rodolphe Barrangou
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  2. Todd R. Klaenhammer
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Correspondence to Rodolphe Barrangou.

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Barrangou, R., Klaenhammer, T. Bacteria get vaccinated. Nature 513, 175–176 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/513175a

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