FIG 2.

Additional protein or blood feeding similarly influence mosquito physiology. To examine the physiological impacts of additional feeding, P. berghei-infected mosquitoes (dark red circle) were challenged 4 days postinfection with an additional protein (blue circle) or blood meal (pink circle). Approximately 24 h after an additional feeding, samples were collected to examine the effects on the microbiome using bacterial 16S rRNA expression (A), vitellogenesis using vitellogenin (Vg) expression (B), and TEP1 expression as a proxy for the immune system (C). Gene expression was examined by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) using either dissected midgut samples (A) or whole-mosquito samples (B and C) using three or more independent biological replicates. Statistical analysis was performed using Mann-Whitney analysis with GraphPad Prism 7 software. Asterisks denote significance (*, P < 0.05). ns, not significant.