Reversibility and hereditary stability of a CRISPRi system in E. coli. (A to C) Reversibility of transcriptional levels of the drfB2 cassette (A), sul1 (B), or intI1 (C) in different generations of recombinant E. coli harboring a CRISPRi vector exposed to aTc or not. (D) Hereditary stability and PCR analysis of recombinant plasmid plv-dCas9-R3 serially passaged in liquid culture with or without CM. The strain without exposure to CM was used as the control. aTc, anhydrotetracycline; CM, chloramphenicol; R0, E. coli C600(R388/plv-dCas9-R0); R3, E. coli C600(R388/plv-dCas9-R3). NS, not significant (P > 0.05); ***, P < 0.001.