Timeline milestone
Bioinformatics links CRISPR spacers to viral DNA
From From Bacterial Defence to Medicine: The CRISPR Gene-Editing Revolution
-
Discovery
Bioinformatics links CRISPR spacers to viral DNA
Three independent teams found that CRISPR spacers matched bacteriophage and plasmid sequences, first proposing that the system functions as an adaptive immune memory.
Francisco Mojica, Alexander Bolotin and Christine Pourcel independently noticed, using bioinformatic comparisons, that the unique 'spacer' sequences sitting between CRISPR repeats matched fragments of bacteriophage and plasmid DNA. That match was the conceptual leap: if bacteria were storing snippets of the viruses that had attacked them, CRISPR might function as a form of acquired immune memory. The hypothesis reframed a structural curiosity as a defence system, though it would take until 2007 to prove experimentally.
Sources & references 1 source
