Figure 1. The role of mosGCTLs in systemic bacterial inoculation in A. aegypti.

a, The role of mosGCTLs in systemic E. coli inoculation. Each mosGCTL gene was silenced through thoracic microinjection of dsRNA in A. aegypti. The number of E. coli was determined by a c.f.u. assay. Each dot represents one mosquito (n ≥ 12 in each group). b–d, The role of mosGCTLs in systemic inoculation of Gram-negative gut bacteria. Seven mosGCTLs, which act as susceptibility factors in E. coli infection (a), were silenced to investigate their roles in C. testosteroni (b), C. meningosepticum (c) and S. marcescens (d) infections in antibiotic-treated mosquitoes. The burden of these gut bacteria was determined by qPCR. e, The role of mosGCTL-29 and mosGCTL-32 in systemic infection with a Gram-positive gut bacterium B. cereus. Both mosGCTL-29 and mosGCTL-32 were knocked down by dsRNA inoculation in antibiotic-treated mosquitoes. The burden of the gut bacteria was determined by qPCR. b–e, The qPCR primers for gut bacteria 16S rDNA are described in Supplementary Table 5. One dot represents one mosquito gut. The horizontal lines represent the median values of the results. Data were analysed using the non-parametric Mann–Whitney test. a–e, The green fluorescent protein (GFP) dsRNA-treated mosquitoes served as mock controls. The results were combined from at least two biologically independent experiments.