How bacteria get spacers from invaders

摘要

Less than a decade ago, immunological memory was regarded as a feature unique to vertebrates - scientists ridiculed the idea that bacteria might be able to 'remember' viruses that attack them. Yet the almost inconceivable concept of bacterial immunological memory has since been shown to exist after all. Two papers in this issue, by Heler et al. (page 199) and Nunez et al. (page 193), report major advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanism of this phenomenon.