Figure 2.

RNAi-based knockdown of TGase3 increases the number of periostial hemocytes during the early stages of GFP-E. coli infection. (A–L) Each fluorescence image shows the tergum of a single abdominal segment with periostial hemocytes (CM-DiI; red) surrounding the ostia (asterisks) in uninfected mosquitoes (A–D), and mosquitoes at 4 (E–H) or 24 h (I–L) post-infection. Prior to treatment, mosquitoes had been injected with dsbla(Ap^R) (A, E, I), dsTGase1 (B, F, J), dsTGase2 (C, G, K) or dsTGase3 (D, H, L). Nuclei were stained blue with Hoechst 33342. A, anterior; P, posterior; L, lateral. (M) Graph shows the average number of periostial hemocytes in dsbla(Ap^R)-, dsTGase1-, dsTGase2- and dsTGase3-injected mosquitoes that were uninfected or had been infected with GFP-E. coli for 4 or 24 h. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s post-hoc test, using dsbla(Ap^R) mosquitoes as the reference. Infection P indicates whether infection has an effect irrespective of dsRNA treatment, dsRNA P indicates whether dsRNA treatment has an effect irrespective of infection, and interaction P indicates whether the effect of infection changes with dsRNA treatment. Column heights mark the means, whiskers show the standard error of the mean (S.E.M.), and the asterisk indicates post-hoc P < 0.05.