FIG 4.

Contribution of the partitioning locus to IncA/C stability. (A) Plasmid map of mini-IncA/C constructs pMAC2 and pMAC3. Compared to plasmid pMAC2, plasmid pMAC3 contains an additional 420-bp fragment downstream of parB. (B) Time course plasmid stability assay in broth culture. At each time point, cultures were serially diluted and grown on LB agar with or without Cm to determine the percentage of plasmid-positive cells relative to time zero. Starting cultures consisted of 50% plasmid-positive plus 50% plasmid-free cells. The assays were performed in triplicate. The data points are means ± standard deviations. *, P < 0.005; **, P < 0.0001.