Magnum Opus: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats Biology and Prokaryotic Gene Silencing

Abstract

Gene Silencing was a technology that was established in eukaryotic system a decade ago and is being used as a research tool widely. However, prokaryotic gene silencing was not workable, till recently a team of researchers from the University of Georgia have proved it possible. Where they have shown that short motif sequences determines the targets of the prokaryotic Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) defence system is regulated by RNA guided Cas protein complex. Thus role of CRISPR system in microbial defense against foreign genetic material (Plasmid or Phages) is an important milestone in the field of microbial molecular biology/biotechnology. These findings will make it easier to understand the significance of a gene, metabolically or physiologically. The revelation by this novel finding by core group of researcher is indeed, Mangum opus. This article is a commentary, to bring to light, prokaryotic gene silencing as one of the latest advances in prokaryotic science.