Extended Data Fig. 3: Type III-A CRISPR–Cas immunity against plasmids with inducible targets.

a, Staphylococcus aureus TB4 strains were transformed with pCRISPR plasmids containing the dcsm3/dcsm6 or the dcas10/dcsm3/dcsm6 mutations in the type III-A CRISPR–Cas locus. Strains were then transformed with a plasmid expressing an inducible transcript with a target (pTarget, top gels) or non-target (pControl, bottom gels) sequence. Cultures were induced with anhydrotetracycline and samples were collected at the indicated time points. Plasmids were extracted, linearized by restriction digestion, separated and visualized with agarose gel electrophoresis. The experiment was performed once. ‘M’, molecular weight marker. b, Calculation of the mutation rate of the data presented in Fig. 3b. The bar graphs represent the mean; the error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. c, Calculation of the mutation rate of wild-type S. epidermidis RP62a and the ΔCRISPR-mutant. The bar graphs represent the mean; the error bars represent 95% confidence intervals; n = 10 biologically independent experiments.