CRISPR was first discovered in 1987 when Japanese researchers found unusual repeated sequences in the genome of E. coli bacteria. They could not determine the purpose of these repeats at the time. In 1993, researchers found similar repeats in many other bacteria and archaea. It was not until 2005 that CRISPR's adaptive immune function in prokaryotes was characterized. CRISPR sequences were found to incorporate small fragments of the genomes of ... Read more
