Figure 4.

AMPs are down-regulated in the head kidney, but some are increased in the gills upon Cryptocaryon irritans infection. Transcription of antimicrobial peptides (a–d) in the gills and head kidney (HK) from control (C) and C. irritans-infected (Ci) gilthead seabream after 2 days of a natural outbreak. Data represent the mean relative gene expression corrected by the ef1a expression in each sample ± SEM (n = 6) obtained by real-time PCR. (*) Asterisks indicate a significant difference between control and infected specimens according to Student’s t test (p ≤ 0.05).