Figure 3.

RNAi-mediated knockdown of yellow gene transcripts following different dsRNA delivery methods. (a) Adult females were injected with 1 µg of gfp- or a mixture of 0.5 µg each of dsRNase1- and -2-dsRNAs. The insects were then fed sugar water containing 2 µg of gfp- or yellow-dsRNA for 6 consecutive days, after which yellow transcript levels were assessed by quantitative RT-PCR. (b) The yellow transcripts were measured as described above, except adult insects were fed 2 µg of gfp- or 2 µg each of dsRNase1- and -2-dsRNAs for 3 days before being fed 2 µg of yellow-dsRNA for 3 days, or were fed 2 µg of gfp-dsRNA for 6 days as a control. (c) Yellow transcripts were assessed after adult insects were fed 2 µg of gfp- or yellow-dsRNA or were co-fed a mixture of 2 µg each of yellow-, dsRNase1- and dsRNase2-dsRNA dsRNAs for 6 consecutive days. Values represent the means and standard errors of eight biological replicates; different letters indicate significant differences (ANOVA with Tukey's post hoc test, p < 0.05).