In defense of phage

Viruses that infect bacteria are the most abundant biological agents on the planet and bacteria have evolved diverse defense mechanisms to combat these genetic parasites. One of these bacterial defense systems relies on a repetitive locus, referred to as a CRISPR (clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). Bacteria and archaea acquire resistance to invading viruses and plasmids by integrating short fragments of foreign nucleic acids at one end of the CRISPR locus. CRISPR loci are transcribed and the long primary CRISPR transcript is processed into a library of small RNAs that guide the immune system to invading nucleic acids, which are subsequently degraded by dedicated nucleases. However, the development of CRISPR-mediated immune systems has not eradicated phages, suggesting that viruses have evolved mechanisms to subvert CRISPR-mediated protection. Recently, Bondy-Denomy and colleagues discovered several phage-encoded anti-CRISPR proteins that offer new insight into the ongoing molecular arms race between viral parasites and the immune systems of their hosts.