Viktor Mamontov, Alexander Martynov, Konstantin Lukyanov and Konstantin Severinov have co-authored a preprint “Long-Term Persistence of Plasmids Targeted by CRISPR Interference in Bacterial Populations”. The scientists have demonstrated that plasmids can persist in Escherichia coli cells at conditions of continuous targeting by the type I-E CRISPR-Cas system without acquiring any genetic alterations. These plasmids may be beneficial for bacterial community in general. Full text is available here.