A foreign-DNA–destroying machine

Bacteria have an adaptive immune system, called CRISPR, that identifies invading viruses through their DNA or RNA sequences and cuts them up (see the Perspective by Zhang and Sontheimer). Jackson et al. and Mulepati et al. have determined the structure of the large protein complex, called Cascade, that targets the invading nucleic acids and does the cutting. The seahorse-shaped structure reveals how the 11 subcomponents of Cascade assemble into the final protein complex. The structure also shows how Cascade presents the short CRISPR-derived RNAs so that they can bind and target foreign DNA.

Science, this issue p. 1473 and p. 1479; see also p. 1452