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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Feb 14.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Cell. 2017 Nov 16;68(4):686–697.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.10.033

Figure 1. Overview of kill switch design concept.

Figure 1

A) In permissive conditions the toxin is repressed. The antitoxin is expressed at a constitutive low level to accommodate for any leaky expression of the toxin. B) Upon a change of environment to non-permissive conditions the repression is lifted and toxin expression increases. The low level of antitoxin expression is no longer capable of preventing a lethal level of free toxic