CRISPRimmunity

CRISPRimmunity performs integrated identification and analysis of CRISPR-Cas loci and anti-CRISPR (Acr) proteins to study CRISPR-Cas system diversity in bacteria and archaea and their co-evolution with bacteriophages.

Key Features:

• Acr prediction: Predicts anti-CRISPR (Acr) proteins with reported accuracy 0.997 on a dataset comprising 99 experimentally validated Acrs and 676 non-Acrs.
• Identification of novel Class 2 CRISPR-Cas loci: Detects candidate novel class 2 CRISPR-Cas loci, with some candidates experimentally validated for cleavage activity in vitro.
• Comprehensive CRISPR-oriented databases: Integrates a suite of CRISPR-oriented databases providing data for browsing, querying, and downloading to support comparative and co-evolutionary analyses.
• Exportable results: Generates exportable outputs in machine-readable formats for downstream bioinformatics workflows.
• Batch analysis capability: Supports batch analysis with source code for batch processing available on GitHub.

Scientific Applications:

• Co-evolutionary analysis: Enables investigation of molecular events governing co-evolution between CRISPR-Cas systems and anti-CRISPR mechanisms.
• Acr discovery and validation: Supports identification of Acr candidates to guide experimental validation efforts.
• Discovery and functional characterization: Facilitates discovery and functional assessment of novel class 2 CRISPR-Cas loci, including in vitro cleavage activity evaluation.

Methodology:

Implements Acr prediction models evaluated on a dataset of 99 experimentally validated Acrs and 676 non-Acrs (accuracy 0.997), identifies novel class 2 CRISPR-Cas loci, integrates CRISPR-oriented databases, and supports batch analysis via available source code.