Figure 2.

Susceptibility of the Vg-ΔRel transgenic mosquitoes to bacterial infection. (A) Survival rate of the parental wild-type and transgenic mosquitoes 24 h after the injection of E. cloacae are present. All of the transgenic mosquitoes at 24 h PBM could not survive >24 h, presenting the immune-deficient phenotype. (B) Dependence of the survival rate to the expression level of Vg-ΔRel transcript. The Vg-ΔRel transcript was induced by a blood meal, and then mosquitoes were challenged by E. cloacae at 5 or 24 h PBM. The mortality of the challenged mosquitoes was assayed at the different time points postinfection indicated in the graphs. In both experiments, 20 mosquitoes were injected for each experimental point. The results shown are representative of at least two independent experiments.