Skip to main content
. 2013 May 9;9(5):e1003348. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003348

Figure 2. RNAi knockdown of six MdBV putative replication genes.

Figure 2

M. demolitor larvae were injected with double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) specific for (A) lef-4, (B) lef-9, (C) vp39, (D) vlf-1, (E) p74, (F) pif-1, (G) int-1. Control larvae were injected with ds-eGFP. The ovaries from individual, newly emerged adults wasps were then dissected and total RNA isolated. The bars in each graph compare copy number of each target gene per ng of total RNA in wasps treated with dsRNA specific for the target gene versus ds-eGFP (control). Error bars represent one standard error from the mean. The number of individuals examined for each treatment is indicated by the N value at the bottom of each bar. Statistical significance is indicated by asterisks: *, p<0.05; **, p<0.001; ***, p<0.0001; N. S., not significant. (H) Knockdown of lef-9 depletes LEF-9 protein. M. demolitor larvae were injected with ds-lef-9 as in (B). Total protein from the ovaries of a newly emerged adult wasp was loaded into lanes of an SDS-PAGE gel followed by immunoblot analysis using an MdBV anti-LEF-9 antibody (1∶5000). The left lanes show results from 5 individual M. demolitor females treated with ds-lef-9 (knockdown), while the lanes on the right show results from 4 females treated with ds-eGFP (control). The predicted size of MdBV LEF-9 is 74.4 kDa.