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Updated: Jan 15, 2026

Precise Phage Mutagenesis with NgTET-Assisted CRISPR-Cas Systems
Published on: October 14, 2025
Old and new tactics of CRISPR-centric competition between bacteria and bacteriophages
1Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, South Korea.
Abstract:
The CRISPR-Cas system provides adaptive immunity for prokaryotes against mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as bacteriophages and plasmids. As a countermeasure, MGEs have evolved various anti-CRISPR (Acr) mechanisms that neutralize the CRISPR-mediated immunity. Canonical Acr proteins block target binding of Cas proteins in a stoichiometric or enzymatic manner. New findings reveal that Acr also disintegrates functional Cas complexes, induces promiscuous target binding, and mimics Cas proteins and crRNA with defective mutations. Here, we summarize a broad repertoire of structural and functional mechanisms underlying CRISPR-centric competition, highlighting recent discoveries of molecular machinery that modulates CRISPR function.
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