Die Immunsysteme der Bakterien

The immune systems of bacteria and important applications in biotechnology and medicine At the end of the 70s of the last century, a new technique has been developed allowing the synthesis of genes and the inducible expression of their recombinant proteins using restriction enzymes and vectors, mainly plasmids. This era has been designated as genetic engineering and is being replenished by the CRISPR‐Cas9 technology know as genome editing. This technology is about to revolutionize alterations in the genomes of all types of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, animals and even humans. It allows the introduction and elimination of point mutations and even whole genes in all organisms. Important goals are the genetic optimization of crop plants and animals, fighting against cancer in humans and elimination of human viruses and pathogenic multi‐resistant bacteria. Important drawbacks are OFF‐targets which can cause mutations in any gene or influence their expression.