Cas1 mediates the interference stage in a phage-encoded CRISPR–Cas system

Abstract

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)–Cas systems are prokaryotic adaptive immune systems against invading phages and other mobile genetic elements. Notably, some phages, including the Vibrio cholerae-infecting ICP1 (International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh cholera phage 1), harbor CRISPR–Cas systems to counteract host defenses. Nevertheless, ICP1 Cas8f lacks the helical bundle domain essential for recruitment of helicase-nuclease Cas2/3 during target DNA cleavage and how this system accomplishes the interference stage remains unknown. Here, we found that Cas1, a highly conserved component known to exclusively work in the adaptation stage, also mediates the interference stage through connecting Cas2/3 to the DNA-bound CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (Cascade; CRISPR system yersinia, Csy) of the ICP1 CRISPR–Cas system. A series of structures of Csy, Csy–dsDNA (double-stranded DNA), Cas1–Cas2/3 and Csy–dsDNA–Cas1–Cas2/3 complexes reveal the whole process of Cas1-mediated target DNA cleavage by the ICP1 CRISPR–Cas system. Together, these data support an unprecedented model in which Cas1 mediates the interference stage in a phage-encoded CRISPR–Cas system and the study also sheds light on a unique model of primed adaptation.