The function of several families of clustered regularly interspaced palindrome repeats (CRISPRs) in prokaryotic genomes was recently found to be related to the protection of bacterial cells against the expression of foreign DNA, originating from plasmids or bacteriophages. The present study was the first attempt to screen a broader number of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus strains, widely used in yoghurt and cheese production, for the presence of CRISPRs. Database search of four completely sequenced L. delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus genomes indicated the presence of CRISPR2 in three of them - ATCC 11842, ATCC BAA-365 and ND02, and the presence of CRISPR3 in strain 2038. In the first three strains, the CRISPR2 was invariably located between a 3′–5′ exonuclease gene and a gene for a ppGpp-synthetase. The location of CRISPR3 in strain 2038 was between a histidine-kinase gene and an acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase gene, 2 kbp downstream of the CRISPR2 locus in ATCC 11842. Specific primers were designed to...