Fig. 4

Knock-down of the integrated fluorescent protein pFAST in T. kivui. A Fluorescence quantification of T. kivui cells expressing pFAST from a plasmid or the genome. Data represent three biological replicates (average ± standard deviation). B Design of CRISPR-based knock-down of pFAST. Plasmids expressing short crRNAs are introduced in T. kivui. The short crRNA interferes with pFAST transcription, which should result in reduced fluorescence. C Results of fluorescence measurements obtained with short spacers in the crRNA (S11: 11 bp, S15: 15 bp, S20: 20 bp) targeting pFAST in T. kivui. Data represent 5–7 biological replicates and are displayed as percentage average ± standard error. Statistical significance was determined using a two-tailed t-test for independent samples (*p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001)