Fig. 5: ZIKV sfRNA inhibits apoptosis in infected mosquito tissues.
From: Zika virus noncoding RNA suppresses apoptosis and is required for virus transmission by mosquitoes
a TUNEL staining of apoptotic nuclei (red) and ZIKV NS1 (green) in ZIKV-infected and mock-infected mosquitoes at 10 days after i.t. injection. Whole mosquito bodies and magnified organs with the major infection sites are shown on the separate panels. Blue pseudo colour shows DAPI-stained DNA; mg, midgut; h, head; t.g., thoracic ganglia; s.g., salivary glands. Images are representative microphotographs of 17–21 independent mosquitoes that showed similar results. Scale bars are 500 μm (whole body) and 250 μm (head and thorax), applicable to all images in corresponding sets. b Quantification of apoptotic and infected areas in organs of ZIKV-infected mosquitoes. All individual values are shown. c Statistical comparison of the apoptosis rate in the tissues of mosquitoes inoculated with WT and sfRNA-deficient ZIKV mutants shown in (b). Outliers (shown as open circles) were identified using ROUT method with Q = 1% (medium stringency) and cleaned data was analysed by two-sided Mann–Whitney U-test, each comparison was independent. Graphs show sample sizes (n), and individual and median values in each group.
