Fig. 5

Eggs from the second gonotrophic cycle are not affected by dsRNA-Nudel when microinjected prior or during the blood feeding stage. A Schematic diagram of experimental time course for dsRNA microinjection, blood feeding, and oviposition in the first and second gonotrophic cycles. B Representative eggs are shown from mosquitoes microinjected with dsRNA-Fluc and dsRNA-Nudel. An effect of RNAi-Nudel and RNAi-Fluc control on fecundity (C), melanization (D), and viability (E) was examined during the first and second gonotrophic cycles. Each dot represents the number of eggs oviposited by an individual mosquito (C). Melanization was examined under a light microscope (D) and viability determined by hatching them 1 week after oviposition (E). Each bar corresponds to egg viability from 12 individual mosquitoes from three groups. The mean ± SEM are shown as horizontal lines. Statistical significance is represented by stars above each column (unpaired Student’s t test; *** P < 0.001, NS not significant). A detailed phenotypic analysis is shown in Additional file 7: Table S6