The discovery of CRISPR-Cas (clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated proteins) adaptive immune systems in prokaryotes has been one of the most exciting advances in microbiology in the past decade. Their role in host protection against mobile genetic elements is now well established, but there is mounting evidence that these systems modulate other processes, such as the genetic regulation of group behaviour and virulence, DNA repair and genome evolution. In this Progress article, we discuss recent studies that have provided insights into these unconventional CRISPR-Cas functions and consider their potential evolutionary implications. Understanding the role of CRISPR-Cas in these processes will improve our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of CRISPR-Cas systems in prokaryotic genomes.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 21. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 January 2026.
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#2,281,200
of 34,444,361 outputs
Outputs from Nature Reviews Microbiology
#942
of 3,250 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#19,248
of 273,127 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Reviews Microbiology
#12
of 41 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,444,361 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,250 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.7. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 273,127 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 41 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its contemporaries.
