Fig 5.

Functional analysis of Ran by RNAi in B. mori larvae. (A) dsRNA-mediated knockdown of Ran in larvae analyzed by RT-qPCR. Larvae injected with GFP dsRNA were used as a negative control for all the knockdown experiments. Three independent experiments were carried out in three replicates each with a set of 3 larvae, and the results were normalized against endogenous 18S rRNA. The data are presented as means ± SD (n = 3). (B) Western blot showing a marked decrease in the Ran protein level upon dsRNA injection in larvae. α-Tubulin was used as an internal control. (C) Downregulation of host miRNAs upon Ran knockdown as determined by Northern blot analysis. (D) Northern blot showing expression of lysine tRNA in Ran knockdown larvae. The probes used are shown beneath each of the blots. The band ratio was obtained by densitometry and normalized against endogenous control 5S rRNA.