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Viruses use RNA decoys to thwart CRISPR defences

Bacteria and archaea are microorganisms that often use RNA-guided defences called CRISPR to destroy the genomes of viruses that infect them. It now emerges that viruses make RNAs that act as mimics to divert such defences.
  1. Carolyn Kraus

    1. Carolyn Kraus is in the RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA.

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  2. Erik J. Sontheimer

    1. Erik J. Sontheimer is in the RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA.

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Microorganisms such as bacteria and archaea flourish despite the ubiquitous presence of viruses, which are called bacteriophages or phages, that can infect them. This resilience is partly due to the evolution of anti-phage defence systems that thwart viral infection1. Writing in Nature, Camara-Wilpert et al.2 uncover a previously unknown strategy that viruses use to divert antiviral defences down a dead-end path.

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Nature 623, 490-491 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03133-z

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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