AGO3 inhibits the Aub:Aub Ping-Pong cycle in a Slicer-independent manner. (A) Box plots illustrating the Ping-Pong Z-score values of piRNAs in each phenotype, with whiskers showing the minimum and maximum numbers in the data group. (B) Heatmap of Z-score values for each transposon family in ago3 mutant, uasp-flag-ago3WT; nosP-gal4:vp16, ago3, and uasp-flag-ago3DD-AA; nosP-gal4:vp16, ago3 ovaries. (C) The Ping-Pong signal showed the probability of 5′ overlap between sense and antisense piRNAs in Het-A, R1A1, F-element, and opus families in ago3 mutant, uasp-flag-ago3WT; nosP-gal4:vp16, ago3, and uasp-flag-ago3DD-AA; nosP-gal4:vp16, ago3 ovaries. (D and E) The nucleotide bias of total TE-derived Ping-Pong piRNAs (D) and Het-A (E) Ping-Pong piRNAs in ago3 mutant, uasp-flag-ago3WT; nosP-gal4:vp16, ago3, and uasp-flag-ago3DD-AA; nosP-gal4:vp16, ago3 ovaries. Closed arrowhead, open arrowhead, and asterisks indicate sense 10A, antisense 1U, and antisense 10A, respectively.