Scientists Resolve Debate Over How Many Bacteria Fight Off Invaders

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Scientists resolve debate over how manybacteria fight off invaders

May 7, 2015

Rockefeller University

Every inch of our body, inside and out, is oozing withbacteria. In fact, the human body carries 10 times thenumber of bacterial cells as human cells. Many are ourfriends, helping us digest food and fight off infections, forinstance. But much about these abundant organisms, uponwhich our life depends, remains mysterious. New researchfinally cracks the code of a fundamental process bacteria

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finally cracks the code of a fundamental process bacteriause to defend themselves against invaders.

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Bacteria illustration (stock image). Learning the details of how microbescarry out their functions can have important implications for health andscience, Marraffini says.

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Every inch of our body, inside and out, is oozingwith bacteria. In fact, the human body carries 10times the number of bacterial cells as human cells.Many are our friends, helping us digest food andfight off infections, for instance. But much aboutthese abundant organisms, upon which our lifedepends, remains mysterious. In researchreported May 7 in Cell, scientists at Rockefellerfinally crack the code of a fundamental processbacteria use to defend themselves againstinvaders.

For years, researchers have puzzled over conflicting results about theworkings of a type of immune system found in many species of bacteria.Some data showed that, when a virus invaded a bacterial cell, thismechanism -- known as type III CRISPR-Cas -- would target the virus'sDNA, preventing it from adopting the bacteria's machinery in order to copyitself and infect more bacteria. But other experiments suggested type IIICRISPR-Cas could only disable a virus by cleaving the viral RNA.

Luciano Marraffini and Poulami Samai, both at Rockefeller, wanted to get to

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the bottom of this puzzle. In their experiments, Samai, a postdoctoral fellow,tested the cleavage of DNA and RNA by the type III CRISPR-Cas system.But she added a key ingredient no one else had before, a protein knownas RNA polymerase, which the cell uses to transcribe DNA to RNA. She andMarraffini, head of the Laboratory of Bacteriology, saw that CRISPR-Casdid, indeed, cleave the RNA produced from a virus's DNA -- but it wouldalso cleave the virus's DNA.

There are advantages to such a two-pronged system, says Marraffini.Many viruses integrate into the genomes of the cells they infect and remaindormant, he says, causing no harm. In fact, these viruses can be beneficialto bacteria, by carrying toxins that help bacteria promote their own survival,for instance. The diphtheria toxin, for instance, is secreted by a species ofbacteria, but the gene encoding the toxin comes from a virus. "By requiringviruses to begin transcribing their DNA into RNA before disabling them, thetype III CRISPR-Cas system leaves dormant viruses intact, allowing them tocontinue benefiting the bacteria that host them," he notes.

Learning the details of how microbes carry out their functions can haveimportant implications for health and science, Marraffini says. Besidesbeing an incredibly abundant form of life on the planet, fueling the healthand disease of every species and ecosystem, microbes have been thesource of a number of technological tools that have revolutionized scienceand medicine.

"More than forty years ago, scientists discovered enzymes that cut DNAfrom studying the viruses that infect bacteria, inspiring a new class of toolsthat created a revolution in biomedicine," says Marraffini. Now, newtechnology based on another type of CRISPR-Cas is leading another wavein that revolution, allowing scientists to quickly and easily manipulategenomes in ways they never could before. "This is a testament to how the

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Cite This Page :

Rockefeller University. "Scientists resolve debate over how many bacteriafight off invaders." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 May 2015..

basic biology of microbes can be very useful. Microbes are a crucial part ofbiology on the planet, and it's important to understand how they work."

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by RockefellerUniversity. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference :

1. Luciano Marraffini et al. Co-transcriptional DNA and RNA Cleavageduring Type III CRISPR-Cas Immunity. Cell, May 2015 DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2015.04.027 show

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Scientists Resolve Debate Over How Many Bacteria Fight Off Invaders