C2c2—the first naturally-occurring CRISPR system that targets RNA, rather than DNA

Researchers unlock new CRISPR system for targeting RNA | Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

A team led by Feng Zhang of the Broad and MIT and Eugene Koonin of the NIH has revealed that C2c2 helps protect bacteria against viral infection by targeting RNA. Photo composite by Lauren Solomon, Broad communications. Images courtesy of Broad communications and NIH.

In a study published today in Science, Feng Zhang and colleagues at the Broad Institute and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, along with co-authors Eugene Koonin and his colleagues at the NIH, and Konstantin Severinov of Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Skoltech, report the identification and functional characterization of C2c2, an RNA-guided enzyme capable of targeting and degrading RNA.

Abudayyeh, Omar O., et al. "C2c2 is a single-component programmable RNA-guided RNA-targeting CRISPR effector." bioRxiv (2016): 054742.

CRISPR - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR, pronounced crisper) are segments of prokaryotic DNA containing short repetitions of base sequences. Each repetition is followed by short segments of "spacer DNA" from previous exposures to a bacteriophage virus or plasmid. The CRISPR/Cas system is a prokaryotic immune system that confers resistance to foreign genetic elements such as those present within plasmids and phages, and provides a form of acquired immunity. CRISPR spacers recognize and cut these exogenous genetic elements in a manner analogous to RNA interference in eukaryotic organisms. CRISPRs are found in approximately 40% of sequenced bacterial genomes and 90% of sequenced archaea.