Intracellular signaling in CRISPR-Cas defense

The CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated protein) system is known to protect bacteria against foreign invading DNA, usually from phages (viruses that infect bacteria) or plasmids (circular DNA found in the cytoplasm of bacteria). Since the first demonstration of CRISPR-Cas functionality a decade ago (1), mechanistic understanding of CRISPR-Cas has not only enabled genome editing but also...