Fig. 6.

Model of Beauveria bassiana deploying bba-milR1 to modulate mosquito immunity. During early stages of infection, B. bassiana bba-milR1 is highly expressed, and translocated into the mosquito cells to attenuate mosquito immune responses by suppressing the expression of the key activator gene Spz4. At this early stage in the integument, the bba-milR1 is not accessible to circulating hemocytes, the site of CLIPB9 gene expression. During later infection stages when the fungus enters the hemocoel, B. bassiana markedly decreases the expression of bba-milR1 to elaborately avoid induction of CLIPB9 and activation of melanization via conversion of prophenoloxidase (PPO) to phenoloxidase (PO) (see Fig. 5a)