Fig. 3.

Genes encoding virulence factors are up-regulated in S. pierantonius during host metamorphosis. Expression kinetics of selected bacterial genes involved in synthesis of the T3SS or in flagellar assembly were analyzed by qRT-PCR on dissected bacteriomes/guts during metamorphosis in symbiotic (green) weevils. A.U., arbitrary units. Boxes represent the first quartile to third quartile for five independent replicates, the middle lines represent the medians, and the whiskers represent minimum and maximum values. Asterisks indicate a significant impact of the developmental time point (dev) based on a one-way ANOVA (*P < 0.05; ***P < 0.001). EP, early pupa; L4, fourth-instar larva; LP, late pupa; P, pupa.