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CRISPR

An immune system found in bacteria and archaea that is used as a genomic engineering tool to cut DNA at specific locations in the genome. CRISPR, the abbreviation for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” i.e. short palindromic repeat sequences, is a section of the host genome that alternately contains repetitive sequences and snippets of foreign DNA. CRISPR proteins such as Cas9, a DNA-cutting enzyme, use them as molecular “mug shots” when they detect and destroy viral DNA.