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Updated: Mar 19, 2026

Substrate Generation for Endonucleases of CRISPR/Cas Systems
Published on: September 8, 2012
Type III CRISPR complexes from Thermus thermophilus
Marta Szychowska1, Wojciech Siwek2, Damian Pawolski2
1International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Warsaw, Poland; Institute of Technical Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, Technical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
Abstract:
Pathogen-specific acquired immunity in bacteria is mediated by the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas systems. Thermus thermophilus strain HB8 contains CRISPR systems of several major subtypes (type I, IIIA and IIIB), and has become a widely studied model for CRISPR biology. We have selected two highly expressed CRISPR spacers, crRNA 2.1 and crRNA 2.2, and have enriched endogenous T. thermophilus proteins that co-purify with these crRNAs. Mass spectroscopy indicates that the chromatography protocol enriches predominantly Csm complex subunits, but also Cmr subunits. After several chromatographic steps, size exclusion chromatography indicated a molecular mass of the crRNA associated complex of 265±69 kDa. In agreement with earlier work, crRNAs of different lengths (containing the selected spacers) were observed. Most of these were completely lost when several T. thermophilus csm genes were ablated.
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