Resumen de Harnessing the Prokaryotic Adaptive Immune System as a Eukaryotic Antiviral Defense

Aryn A. Price, Arash Grakoui, David S. Weiss

• Clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats – CRISPR-associated (CRISPR-Cas) systems – are sequence-specific RNA-directed endonuclease complexes that bind and cleave nucleic acids. These systems evolved within prokaryotes as adaptive immune defenses to target and degrade nucleic acids derived from bacteriophages and other foreign genetic elements. The antiviral function of these systems has now been exploited to combat eukaryotic viruses throughout the viral life cycle. Here we discuss current advances in CRISPR-Cas9 technology as a eukaryotic antiviral defense.