Fig. 3

GCN1 knockdown affects mosquito fecundity. a Representative ovaries imaged from mosquitoes injected with either GCN1 dsRNA or GFP dsRNA at stated times PBM. Scale bars in each image: 500 µm. b, c Ovary lengths (b) and lengths of five representative oocytes (c) were measured from 10 GCN1 dsRNA-injected (n = 10) or 10 GFP dsRNA-injected (n = 10) mosquitoes sampled at 0 h PBM (unfed), 24 h PBM, 48 h PBM or 72 h PBM. Data are presented as the average length of the 10 ovary pairs (b) or oocytes (c) ± standard error of the mean. Paired t-tests were used to determine statistical significance of differences between GCN1 dsRNA-injected and GFP dsRNA-injected ovary and oocyte lengths at each time point. d Egg numbers of GFP dsRNA-injected (n = 18) and GCN1 dsRNA-injected (n = 23) mosquitoes. Individual dsRNA-injected females were blood-fed 5 days PI and separated into individual egg laying chambers. Egg paper with deposited eggs were collected 96 h PBM and desiccated for 48 h prior to counting. Each point represents the number of eggs laid by a single mosquito. Lines and whiskers represent median egg number ± interquartile range (IQR). e Hatch rates of 12 (n = 12) randomly selected clutches from mosquitoes injected in part c. Lines and whiskers represent median percent of eggs hatched per clutch ± IQR. Statistical significance (P < 0.05) of egg number and hatch rate data was determined with Mann-Whitney U-tests using GraphPad Prism 8 software