Fig 4. wMelCS and wRi Wolbachia strains inhibit DENV-3 replication and dissemination following an infectious blood meal.

Seven-day old female mosquitoes were fed a blood meal of fresh DENV-3 (2.0 x 10⁶ TCID₅₀/ml) mixed 1:1 with sheep blood (n = 500 per Wolbachia-infected line, n = 200 per respective Tet control line). Mosquitoes were sorted immediately to identify those that took a blood meal, and incubated for 14 days. Mosquito heads were then separated from the thorax and total RNA was extracted from each head and remaining mosquito body. DENV genome copies were determined by qRT-PCR for each body as a measure of infection, and for each head as a measure of viral dissemination. Data are the mean genome copies per mosquito body (top) or head (bottom) ± SEM, and are representative of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analyses were performed using a Mann-Whitney test where ** p < 0.01, ****p<0.0001.