title: Structure Principles of CRISPR-Cas Surveillance and Effector Complexes.
abstract: The pathway of CRISPR-Cas immunity redefines the roles of RNA in the flow of genetic information and ignites excitement for next-generation gene therapy tools. CRISPR-Cas machineries offer a fascinating set of new enzyme assemblies from which one can learn principles of molecular interactions and chemical activities. The interference step of the CRISPR-Cas immunity pathway congregates proteins, RNA, and DNA into a single molecular entity that selectively destroys invading nucleic acids. Although much remains to be discovered, a picture of how the interference process takes place is emerging. This review focuses on the current structural data for the three known types of RNA-guided nucleic acid interference mechanisms. In it, we describe key features of individual complexes and we emphasize comparisons across types and along functional stages. We aim to provide readers with a set of core principles learned from the three types of interference complexes and a deep appreciation of the diversity among them.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biophysics and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306; email: hong.li@fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Tsz Kin Martin
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Tsui
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D064113:CRISPR-Cas Systems; D064112:Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D034622:RNA Interference; D012261:Ribonucleoproteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D012261:Ribonucleoproteins
keywords: DNA interference; RNA silencing; prokaryote immunity; ribonucleoprotein particles