Mechanism of defense in a phage-resistant derivative of Streptococcus thermophilus

Description: This research seeks to reveal the defence mechanism acquired by an industrial derivative of S. thermophilus against invading viral DNA. While the parent strain was sensitive to the attack of bacteria-targeting viruses, known as bacteriophages, the derivative strain had gained spontaneous immunity against such menace. Strains of these species have shown to be able to acquire immunity to bacteriophages through a recently discovered mechanism known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). This mechanism incorporates small sequences from the invading viral DNA in the form of ?spacers? into its own genome for future site recognition and subsequent replication inhibition.

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