title: CRISPR-Cas: Spacer Diversity Determines the Efficiency of Defense.
abstract: Bacterial CRISPR-Cas systems acquire short sequences, called spacers, from viruses and plasmids, leading to adaptive immunity. The diversity of spacers within natural bacterial populations is very high. New data now explain how spacer diversity strengthens resistance of the bacterial population to phage infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lopatina
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. Electronic address: rotem.sorek@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Rotem
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sorek
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000235:genetics; D064113:CRISPR-Cas Systems; D064112:Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats; D010957:Plasmids