article · Applied Microbiology
CRISPR-Cas systems serve not only as adaptive immune defences against phages and plasmids in prokaryotes, but also as versatile regulators of bacterial physiology. They influence gene expression, stress responses, biofilm formation, quorum sensing, and virulence. At the host-pathogen interface, CRISPR-mediated regulation can assist bacteria in evading host immune systems, highlighting a central role in microbial survival and infection dynamics. Alongside these natural functions, CRISPR-Cas technology forms an essential component of synthetic biology and microbiome engineering. Engineered and native systems are being adapted to selectively adjust microbiome compositions and provide sequence-specific antimicrobials. Understanding both canonical defence functions and non-canonical regulatory behaviours offers new pathways for translating microbial genetics into targeted therapeutic and biotechnological tools.
Understanding how bacteria use CRISPR systems to control their own physiology and evade host defences provides crucial insights into infection mechanisms. Harnessing these dual immune and regulatory functions opens possibilities for designing highly precise biological tools. These tools could selectively control harmful bacterial strains or reshape complex microbial communities without disrupting beneficial species.
The abstract highlights applications in synthetic biology and microbiome engineering, specifically targeted microbiome modulation and sequence-specific antimicrobials. Potential end users include developers of targeted therapeutics, biotechnology firms, and microbiome health enterprises. Because the work is presented as a synthesis of emerging concepts and future research directions rather than an evaluation of specific commercial products, these technologies remain at an early, exploratory stage of translational development.
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CRISPR-Cas systems are best known as adaptive immune defenses in prokaryotes, but they also function as versatile regulators bridging bacterial immunity with host-related processes. Beyond neutralizing invasive phages and plasmids, these systems influence core aspects of bacterial physiology, such as modulating gene expression, stress responses, biofilm formation, quorum sensing, and virulence. Notably, CRISPR-mediated regulation can facilitate immune evasion at the host-pathogen interface, underscoring these systems as central orchestrators of microbial survival and host interactions. In addition, CRISPR-Cas has rapidly become a cornerstone of synthetic biology and microbiome engineering. Recent strategies repurpose native and engineered CRISPR systems to precisely modulate microbiome composition or deliver sequence-specific antimicrobials, underscoring the expanding translational potential of this system. Collectively, emerging insights highlight both the canonical immune function and non-canonical regulatory roles of CRISPR-Cas, as well as their broad biological and biotechnological relevance. This review provides a critical synthesis of these developments, illustrating how CRISPR-Cas bridges adaptive immunity and microbial physiology, and outlines future directions for harnessing this duality to deepen understanding of microbial physiology and inform new translational applications.
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DOI: 10.3390/applmicrobiol5040118
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