Antimicrobial peptide (AMP) induction patterns in gut of TmSpz4-silenced larvae. The antimicrobial peptide expression levels in TmSpz4-knock-down of T. molitor larval gut were performed by injecting either E. coli (Ec), S. aureus (Sa), or C. albicans (Ca). PBS was injected as a control 5 days post-TmSpz4 silencing. At 24 h post-microbial challenge, the expression levels of several AMP genes, including those of TmTen-1, TmTen-2, TmTen-3, TmTen-4, TmAtt-1a, TmAtt-1b, TmAtt-2, TmDef-1, TmDef-2, TmCol-1, TmCol-2, TmCec-2, TmTLP-1, and TmTLP-2, were measured by qRT-PCR. dsEGFP was injected as a negative control, and TmL27a expression was measured as an internal control. All experiments were performed in triplicate. Asterisks indicate significant differences between dsTmSpz4- and dsEGFP-treated groups when compared by Student’s t-test (p < 0.05). Effects of TmSpz4 on the expression patterns of NF-κB genes.