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CRISPR-Cas immunity: beyond nonself and defence

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A Reply to this article was published on 13 February 2019

The Original Article was published on 19 January 2019

Abstract

In this commentary of Koonin’s target paper, we defend an extended view of CRISPR-Cas immunity by arguing that CRISPR-Cas includes, but cannot be reduced to, defence against nonself. CRISPR-Cas systems can target endogenous elements (for example in DNA repair) and tolerate exogenous elements (for example some phages). We conclude that the vocabulary of “defence” and “nonself” might be misleading when describing CRISPR-Cas systems.

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Notes

  1. In some cases, including CRISPR-Cas systems, tolerated foreign elements can even be transmitted to the offspring, allowing adaptations at the level of populations and/or species.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Michael Weisberg for the opportunity to write about the philosophical and immunological dimensions of the CRISPR-Cas system, and Eugene Koonin for his extremely innovative and stimulating ideas.

Funding

TP has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme—Grant Agreement no. 637647—IDEM.

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Correspondence to Thomas Pradeu.

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Pradeu, T., Moreau, JF. CRISPR-Cas immunity: beyond nonself and defence. Biol Philos 34, 6 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-018-9665-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-018-9665-8

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