Fig. 6

Effect of longicin silencing in tick mortality and virus titer. a To confirm gene-specific silencing, 3 ticks from each group were collected at 0, 4, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 60 dai of dsRNA. Initial confirmation of longicin silencing was carried out through RT-PCR and gel electrophoresis (a), while gene silencing efficiency was determined by real-time PCR (b). Virus titers (c) and tick survival (d) were monitored after injecting LGTV on 4-day luciferase dsRNA- or longicin dsRNA-inoculated ticks. Values for mortality (n = 30 ticks per group) were expressed as the percentage of live ticks remaining to the number of ticks used at the beginning of the experiment in different time courses. Significant difference (*p < 0.05) was determined using the Mantel-Cox log-rank test, while error bars in virus titers indicate SD in mean values of 5 ticks. *p < 0.05, luciferase vs longicin