Figure 3.

Induction patterns of TmSpz4 in different T. molitor larval tissues. Temporal expression was analyzed in the hemocytes (A), fat body (B), and gut (C) of young larvae at 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 h post-injection with E. coli (10⁶ cells/μL), S. aureus (10⁶ cells/μL), or C. albicans (5 × 10⁴ cells/μL). Twenty young mealworm larvae were used for each time point. TmSpz4 expression levels were normalized to those in PBS-injected controls. T. molitor 60S ribosomal protein L27a (TmL27a) was used as an internal control. The dotted red line indicates PBS injection control. Asterisks indicate significant differences between infected and PBS injected larval group by Student’s t-test (p < 0.05). The vertical bars indicate Mean ± SD (n = 20).