Fig. 2

Relative expression of Tppgrp-lc, Tptoll, and Tprelish and antimicrobial peptide transcripts in fat body of blood-fed and non-fed T. pallidipennis after immune challenge with E. coli and M. luteus. In blood-fed bugs, all transcripts increased significantly after challenge with E. coli or M. luteus. Tppgrp-lc and Tprelish increased more with E. coli than with M. luteus, while Tptoll increased more with M. luteus than with E. challenge. Defensin B and prolixicin expression increased after challenge with E. coli or M. luteus, but these increases were not significant among groups. Lysozyme showed significantly higher expression against E. coli than against M. luteus. In the non-fed groups, the increases were lower than in blood-fed groups. Relative expression (2^−∆∆CT) is the quantified change between transcripts, asterisks indicate P < 0.05, bars represent the mean transcript levels ± 95% CI, points represent the analyzed groups, and a double asterisk with a bar represents the significance (P < 0.05) of expression between the challenged groups, PBS group as control, and this normalized with the blood-fed and unchallenged group adjusted for β-actin. Upper right: timeline showing the experimental strategy to obtain the fat body of each bug in the non-fed and blood-fed groups