Fig. 8

Transcript expression of DCE2, DCE4, DCE5, and CATL3 during the first gonotrophic cycle in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Tissue-specific and developmental expression patterns of DCE2 (A), DCE4 (B), DCE5 (C), and CATL3 (D) during the first gonotrophic cycle are shown in the left graphs. Gene expression was analyzed by qPCR using cDNAs prepared from various tissues. Tissues included are thorax (TX), fat body (FB), midgut (MG), ovary (OV), and Malpighian tubules (MT) in sugar-fed only (SF), 24, and 48 h PBM, as well as larvae (Lv), pupae (Pp), and adult males (M). The expression in fat body at SF was set to 1.0. DCE2, DCE4, DCE5, and CATL3 were predominantly expressed in ovaries (highlighted with a red dotted rectangle). In addition, a detailed transcript expression study in mosquito ovaries during the first gonotrophic cycle was also performed. In the right-hand plots, samples from SF to 36 h PBM include entire ovaries, whereas those from 48 h to 14 days PBM include only primary follicles isolated from ovaries. Expression in ovaries at SF was set to 1.0. The expression levels for DCE2, DCE4, DCE5, and CATL3 were normalized to S7 ribosomal protein transcript levels in the same cDNA samples. Data were collected from three different mosquito cohorts. The mean ± SEM are shown as horizontal lines