Fig. 2: desat1 silencing significantly alters lipid composition of newly emerged female mosquitoes.

a Oil Red O-stained fat bodies of sugar- or blood-fed females injected with dsGFP or dsdesat1 at 18 h or at 72 h PE. b Relative triacylglycerol (TAG) abundance of fat bodies of sugar- or blood-fed females injected with dsGFP or dsdesat1 at 18 h or 72 h PE. TAG measurements were normalized to the total proteins. Similar results were obtained from three biological repeats. c Heatmap of lipid classes of desat1-silenced mosquitoes before and after a blood meal. Female mosquitoes were injected with dsdesat1 or dsGFP (control) at either 18 h or 72 h PE. After a 3-day recovery, lipid was extracted before and after a blood meal (24 h PBM). Each column represents an independent sample (n = 3), and each row corresponds to a specific lipid type: Cer: ceramide; PC: phosphatidylcholine; PE: phosphatidylethanolamine; PG: phosphatidylglycerol; SM: sphingomyelin; DAG: diacylglycerol; TAG: triacylglycerol; FA: fatty acid. d Ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids (USFA/SFA) of 18 h PE desat1-silenced mosquitoes pre- and post-blood meal (24 h PBM). Relative abundance of major saturated and unsaturated fatty acids of 18 h PE desat1-silenced mosquitoes fed with sugar (e) or blood (f). C16:0: palmitic acid; C16:1: palmitoleic acid; C18:0: stearic acid; C18:1: oleic acid. g USFA/SFA ratio in 72 h PE desat1-silenced mosquitoes before and after a blood meal (24 h PBM). Relative abundance of major saturated and unsaturated fatty acids of 72 h PE desat1-silenced mosquitoes fed with sugar (h) or blood (i). Desat1-RNAi treatments were normalized to GFP-RNAi treatments. Error bars indicate SEM. Statistics were performed with Student’s t-test. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; ****, p < 0.0001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.