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NEWS AND VIEWS 18 October 2023 Viruses use RNA decoys to thwart CRISPR defences Bacteria and archaea are microorganisms that often use RNA-guided defences called CRISPR to destroy the

genomes of viruses that infect them. It now emerges that viruses make RNAs that act as mimics to divert such defences. By Carolyn Kraus ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7552-099X0 & Erik J.

Sontheimer ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0881-03101 Carolyn Kraus Carolyn Kraus is in the RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester,

Massachusetts 01605, USA.

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Erik J. Sontheimer Erik J. Sontheimer is in the RNA Therapeutics Institute, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA.

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Twitter Facebook Email Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Microorganisms such as bacteria and archaea flourish despite the ubiquitous presence of viruses, which are called

bacteriophages or phages, that can infect them. This resilience is partly due to the evolution of anti-phage defence systems that thwart viral infection1. Writing in Nature, Camara-Wilpert

et al.2 uncover a previously unknown strategy that viruses use to divert antiviral defences down a dead-end path.

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Nature 623, 490-491 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03133-z

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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