Non-conventional therapeutic technique to replace CRISPR bacteria from biofilm by inducible lysogen |
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Authors: | Qasim Ali |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Mathematics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USAwork.qali@gmail.comhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0609-2554 |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACTBacteriophage can be an effective means of regulating bacterial populations when conditions allow phage invasion of bacterial colonies. Phage can either infect and lyse a host cell, or insert their DNA into the host cell genome; the latter process is called lysogeny. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) system, linked with CRISPR-associated (Cas) genes, is a regulatory system present in a variety of bacteria which confers immunity against bacteriophage. Studies of the group behaviour of bacteria with CRISPR/Cas systems have provided evidence that CRISPR in lysogenized bacteria can cause an inability to form biofilm. This allows CRISPR-immune bacteria in biofilms to effectively resist phage therapy. Our recent work has described a potential therapeutic technique to eradicate CRISPR-immune bacteria from a biofilm by a continuous influx of lysogens carrying an identical phage sequence. However, this model predicted that the CRISPR-immune population could persist for long times before eradication. Our current focus is on the use of diverse lysogens against CRISPR-capable bacterial populations. The goal of this work is to find a suitable strategy which can eradicate bacteria with a CRISPR system through the influx of finite amounts of distinct lysogens over fixed intervals. |
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Keywords: | Bacteria bacteriophage biofilm CRISPR/Cas system lysogen |
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