Comparative genomic analysis of CRISPR/Cas systems in Thermococcus genomes

CRISPR/Cas systems are adaptive immune systems widespread in bacteria and archaea that confer protection against invading nucleic acids. However, beyond its role in prokaryotes, many applications have derived from these systems, especially in the genome engineering field. Such has been the impact of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Blanch Asensio, Marc
Tipo de recurso: tesis de maestría
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Repositorio:O2, repositorio institucional de la UOC
OAI Identifier:oai:openaccess.uoc.edu:10609/126966
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10609/126966
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:CRISPR/Cas
thermococcus
structural features
característiques estructurals
características estructurales
Bioinformatics -- TFM
Bioinformàtica -- TFM
Bioinformática -- TFM
Descripción
Sumario:CRISPR/Cas systems are adaptive immune systems widespread in bacteria and archaea that confer protection against invading nucleic acids. However, beyond its role in prokaryotes, many applications have derived from these systems, especially in the genome engineering field. Such has been the impact of CRISPR/Cas systems on this field, that they are considered a game-changing technology. This impact has triggered the interest in identifying and characterizing such systems in prokaryotes. Even so, the CRISPR/Cas systems of many prokaryotes, particularly in archaea, remain yet-to-be-explored. In this study, the CRISPR/Cas systems of Thermococcus are characterized through a comparative genomic analysis. Thermococcus is an archaeal genus that comprises thermophilic microorganisms. Thermococcus are of interest for the industry, mainly owing to their thermostable enzymes. The characterization of the systems identified in Thermococcus revealed their occurrence, diversity, organization and structural features. For said characterization, the use of online tools, specially created for CRISPR/Cas systems analyses, and software aimed at phylogenetic analyses have been required. Overall, a high occurrence and diversity of CRISPR/Cas systems have been detected in Thermococcus. The CRISPR loci, cas loci and structural features analyses also suggested likely horizontal gene transfer events among Thermococcus species. Furthermore, a pipeline to detect and characterize CRISPR/Cas systems in prokaryotic genomes has been generated, which can be employed for other species or genera.