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Journal of Molecular Evolution2005Mojica et al.The insight that CRISPR spacers come from viruses: the origin of the whole field.
Research paper · Foundational
Intervening sequences of regularly spaced prokaryotic repeats derive from foreign genetic elements
The insight that CRISPR spacers come from viruses: the origin of the whole field.
Simple explanation
Francisco Mojica noticed that the unique sequences sitting between CRISPR's repeating blocks matched viral DNA. That meant microbes were keeping a genetic record of infections they had survived. Everything else follows from that observation.
Go deeper
Mojica, Díez-Villaseñor, García-Martínez and Soria reported that spacer sequences within CRISPR arrays match bacteriophage and plasmid sequences, proposing an adaptive immune function. The paper was rejected by several journals before publication, a frequently cited example of how difficult genuinely novel results can be to publish.
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