Fig. 1.

Cactus silencing and relative gene expression of the AMPs attacin, cecropin and defensin 2 determined by qPCR: a Gene expression of the Toll pathway repressor cactus in LL5 cells transfected with cactus dsRNA; b, c and d Gene expression of the AMPs attacin, cecropin and defensin 2 in LL5 cells after cactus silencing. Quantifications were normalized relative to the housekeeping gene rp49, and relative gene expression expressed as fold change calculated relative to mock transfected control group. Dotted line indicates the gene expression of control transfected with luciferase dsRNA. Bars represent mean with standard error (SEM) of two biological replicates from independent experiments collected at 12, 24 and 48 h post dsRNA transfection. ANOVA test with multiple comparisons of Games-Howell or Tukey was used. Bonferroni correction was used in the analyses of the samples. P-values: *P < 0.05; ****P < 0.0001