Extended Data Fig. 6: Effects of puromycin and lincomycin treatments.

a, b, Controls showing that puromycin and lincomycin treatments do not increase background autofluorescence. Confocal fluorescence micrographs and mean fluorescence intensity per cell of the background signal in the TAMRA channel for unprobed cells of (a) Synechocystis and (b) Synechococcus, showing similar intensity of the background autofluorescence with and without inhibitor treatment. Error bars in the box plots indicate the range of values recorded, the centre line shows the median and the box spans the first to third quartiles; none of the differences are significant. n: number of cells measured; Scale bars: 2 µm. c, d, Effects of puromycin on growth of Synechococcus and Synechocystis cells. Ten-fold serial dilutions of three independent cultures were spotted on BG11 plates ± puromycin (50 μg/ml). Plates were photographed after seven days of growth. Images are representative of 2 independent experiments.