Prevalence of Crisprs and Crispr Spacers in Halophilic Archaea
Author: Mimi Anderson
Faculty Supervisor: José R. de la Torre
Department: Biology
Archaea are an abundant yet elusive domain of life that have some similarities with bacteria, including the ability to exchange DNA with other archaea, bacteria, and viruses. This process of gene uptake has enabled some bacteria to become extremely pathogenic, yet despite their similarities, no archaea have been observed causing disease in humans. While this lack of disease often results in archaea receiving less attention than bacteria, there has been no conclusive proof proving it to be impossible. Because of this, it is important that archaea and their interactions with viruses are researched in order to conclude the ability or inability of pathogenic infection in humans. This analysis will use the presence of crisprs and crispr spacers to look at the average number of viruses an individual halophilic archaeon is immune to, which is measured by the amount of spacers (or viruses it has come into contact with). These numbers will then be compared to halophilic bacteria, with archaea expected to have more crisprs and spacers. This data will provide an important stepping stone for more archaeal and archaeal virus research to come.