Figure 3

Functional implication of salivary gland genes in the probing behavior of mosquitoes. Probing time spent by gene silenced mosquitoes (depleted of D7-L2, anophelin, peroxidase, trio, SG2 precursor and 5' nucleotidase transcripts), and GFP dsRNA injected control mosquitoes, from the insertion of mouthparts into the mouse skin and the first sign of blood within the midgut. Four days after dsRNA injection, individual mosquitoes were exposed to an anesthetized mouse for 500 seconds. Probing times were only measured for those mosquitoes that initiated ingestion of blood within the 500 seconds interval. GFP (n = 37), D7-L2 (n = 20; p = 0.002), anophelin (n = 19; p = 0.012), peroxidase (n = 19; p = 0.007), trio (n = 23; p = 0.7), SG2 precursor (n = 20; p = 0.02), 5' nucleotidase (n = 23; p = 0.05), where n is the total number of mosquitoes tested for each gene and p value is determined by the Mann-Whitney test. Results from three independent sets of experiments are shown in the graph. The rank order (the cumulative number of mosquitoes from different replicas that completed their probing within this time-interval) was plotted against the time.