CRISPR was first discovered as a defense mechanism in what organism?

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All right. Hello everyone. So this question, is it true or false and correct the statement? If it is false, it reads that CRISPR was first discovered as a defense mechanism in fungi. So here on the screen, I went ahead and wrote down what CRISPR stands for. So that's clustered regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats. And so CRISPR refers to a specialized region of DNA. So based on the name, it's composed of repeating sequences of nucleotides and some unique sequences. So CRISPR, right, as a technique has proved to be incredibly useful in gene editing. So now the question is, how was this discovered and it was actually discovered as a defense mechanism present in bacteria, not fungi. So the way that it works is that the scientists found that bacteria are able to incorporate viral DNA into their own genome as a defense mechanism. And so what happens is that if the same virus is trying to infect the bacteria again, this stored DNA is used to produce viral RN A. And so once this viral RNA has been generated, right has been synthesized, this is going to act as a signal for the class nine enzyme of the bacteria itself. And so what CAS nine does is cut the viral DNA. In other words, the DNA that's now trying to reinfect the bacteria. So once the viral DNA has been cut by Cas nine, it has now been neutralized. So here, because of this defense mechanism, scientists have been able to use it to their advantage. This is why CRISPR has applications in gene editing, allowing for the deletion modification or even replacement of genes in any given organism. So to go back to the statement that's given that's going to be false, right? Because the statement says that it was discovered as a defense mechanism in bacteria, excuse me and fungi. What's correct is that it was found in bacteria? So there you have it. The answer to this question is that the statement given was false because CRISPR was first discovered as a defense mechanism in bacteria, not fungi. And so with that being said, thank you so very much for watching. And I hope you found this helpful.

CRISPR was first discovered as a defense mechanism in what organism?

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Key Concepts

CRISPR

Bacteria

Gene Editing