Fig. 4.

Bacterial persistence versus AMP gene induction in haemocyte-ablated larvae following oral infection. (A) During oral infection, wild-type larvae eliminated Ecc-246 within 24 hours. By contrast, haemocyte-depleted larvae could not restrict bacterial proliferation and exhibited elevated CFUs during the same time course. Despite the higher number of CFUs, systemic induction of dipt (measured by northern blot) was severely reduced in comparison to wild-type larvae (B). This showed that the presence of haemocytes was important for the systemic induction of immunity during oral infection. Mean values ± s.d. from at least three independent experiments are presented (northern blots in whole larvae).