FIGURE 3.

Induction of TEP1 expression upon Plasmodium infection is inhibited by Cbx treatment. The expression levels of selected gene markers involved in the innate immune response were assessed in whole mosquitoes that received Cbx treatment before the Plasmodium-infected blood meal. The expression levels of the various genes assessed in this study were not altered by Cbx treatment before blood acquisition. The induction of TEP1 normally observed after blood feeding was abolished in the Cbx treatment group at 24 hpi. The expression levels of other markers in the treatment group remained unchanged from the control. The bacteria level of nascent mosquitoes treated with Cbx did not show significant differences from the control group. The induction of bacteria level after blood meal, including enterobacteria, was further enhanced in the Cbx treatment group at 24 and 48 hpi. The data represent the means ± S.E. of the mean compiled from three independent experiments. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01 by two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni's multiple comparisons test.