Fig. 3: Sexually transferred EPP regulates female remating rates and fertility.
From: A male steroid controls female sexual behaviour in the malaria mosquito
a, Decreased phosphatase activity in MAGs caused by EPP silencing using double-stranded EPP RNA (dsEPP) or double-stranded GFP RNA (dsGFP) control. A pool of 20 MAGs was used in each replicate (P = 0.0046, paired t-test, two-sided), indicated by separate dots. b, Females mated to EPP-silenced males have a significantly lower proportion of dephosphorylated 3D20E at 3 h.p.m. (P = 0.0043, unpaired t-test, two-sided), whereas 20E levels are unaffected (P = 0.063, unpaired t-test, two-sided). The data are presented as mean ± s.e.m., derived from three pools of 13, 16 and 19 females each. c, Females mated to EPP-silenced males have a significantly higher rate of remating (P = 0.0002, Fisher’s exact test, two-sided). The females were first force-mated to ensure their mated status; 2 days later, they were exposed to additional males carrying transgenic sperm to assess remating rates by quantitative PCR detection of the transgene. d, Blood-fed females mated to EPP-silenced males have a significant decrease in fertility (P < 0.0001; Mann–Whitney test, two-sided) and a slight decrease in egg numbers (P = 0.088, Mann–Whitney test, two-sided), whereas the oviposition rate is not affected (P = 0.94, Fisher’s exact test, two-sided). In all panels, n indicates the number of biologically independent mosquito samples. NS, not significant. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.001.
