Patrick Boyaval

TL;DR: It is found that, after viral challenge, bacteria integrated new spacers derived from phage genomic sequences, and CRISPR provided resistance against phages, and resistance specificity is determined by spacer-phage sequence similarity.

TL;DR: In vivo evidence is provided that the Streptococcus thermophilus CRISPR1/Cas system can also naturally acquire spacers from a self-replicating plasmid containing an antibiotic-resistance gene, leading toplasmid loss.

TL;DR: It is shown through the analyses of 20 mutant phages that virulent phages are rapidly evolving through single nucleotide mutations as well as deletions, in response to CRISPR1.

TL;DR: A novel Streptococcus thermophilus locus is characterized, and its ability to integrate novel spacers in response to bacteriophage is experimentally demonstrated, and it is hypothesized that the level of diversity is correlated with relative CRISPR activity and proposed that the activity is highest for CRISpr1, followed by CRIS PR3, while CRISP2 may be degenerate.

TL;DR: It is hypothesized that CRISPR loci have been subjected to horizontal gene transfer and further evolved independently in select lineages, in part due to selective pressure resulting from phage predation.