Leptospirillum group II CRISPR loci Raw sequence reads. biofilm metagenome

Bacterial CRISPR-Cas systems provide insight into recent population history because they rapidly incorporate, in a unidirectional manner, short fragments (spacers) from coexisting infective virus populations into host chromosomes. Here, we used metagenomics to study the stability and dynamics of the type I-E CRISPR-Cas locus of Leptospirillum group II bacteria in biofilms sampled from an acid mine drainage (AMD) system. The entire Leptospirillum group II CRISPR locus was amplified with specific CRISPR primers and sequenced via 454.

细菌CRISPR-Cas系统（CRISPR-Cas）可通过单向方式快速将共存侵染性病毒群体的短片段，即间隔序列（spacers），整合至宿主染色体中，因此能够为解析种群的近期演化历史提供关键依据。本研究采用宏基因组学技术，对取自酸性矿山排水（acid mine drainage, AMD）系统生物膜中的钩端螺旋体菌II群的I-E型CRISPR-Cas基因座的稳定性与动态变化展开分析。研究人员通过特异性CRISPR引物扩增得到该菌群完整的CRISPR基因座，并借助454测序技术完成了测序。