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. 2016 Jan 11;10(1):e0004356. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004356

Fig 1. RNAi of SmPLK1 induces phenotypic changes in cultured S. mansoni somules.

Fig 1

A. Somules were co-incubated for 22 days with dsRNA targeting (1) the non-schistosome mCherry protein as a control, (2) Smplk1 or (3) Smsak. One representative image for each of the conditions is shown. Arrows point to degenerate parasites. Scale bar = 100 μm. B. Graph showing the percentage of degenerate worms. After 22 days of treatment, somules were counted by eye and those that were degenerate determined as a percentage of the total number of worms. Results are displayed as the mean +/- SD of two independent experiments each performed in duplicate (*p<0.05; **p ≤ 0.0005). C. Quantification of transcripts by RT-qPCR. Somules were co-incubated for seven days with dsRNA targeting transcripts of smplk1 or smsak and using dsRNA to mCherry protein as a non-schistosome control. For qPCR, S. mansoni cytochrome C oxidase I was used as a reference gene. S. mansoni cathepsin B1 Smcb1 was used as a “bystander” gene to assess off-targeting by the dsRNA preparations of interest. Data are expressed using the 2-ΔΔCt method as described in the Material and Methods: values represent the mean +/- SD of two independent experiments each performed in duplicate (*p<0.005; **p<0.001).