title: [Advances in clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats--a review].
abstract: The recently discovered Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPRs) can protect bacteria and archaea with adaptive and heritable defense systems against the invasion of phage- and plasmid- associated mobile genetic elements. Here, we review the structure, diversity, mechanism of interference and self versus non-self discrimination of CRISPR systems. We also discuss the potential applications of this novel interference system.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology and National Engineering, Research Center of Microbial Pesticides, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. wangli12271227@163.com
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Jieping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D055029:Inverted Repeat Sequences; D034622:RNA Interference