Fig. 3: Silencing the tick SUB inhibits tick-borne SFTSV transmission.
A Schematic representation of the study design. H. longicornis ticks were intrahemocoelically injected with 1 μg/500 nL dsSUB or dsEGFP as negative controls. Six days later, the ticks were intrahemocoelically injected with SFTSV (7.25 × 103 FFU) and maintained for 6 days to allow virus infection. Subsequently, KM mice were bitten by SFTSV-infected females (each mouse was bitten by two infected females and one uninfected male) in a feeding chamber. After 2 days, ten uninfected nymphs were placed in the chamber. Engorged nymphs and mouse skin were collected and subjected to determine the viral burden by qPCR analysis. The relative levels of SFTSV RNA in engorged nymphs (n = 21 for engorged nymphs co-fed with dsEGFP-treated females; n = 16 for engorged nymphs co-fed with dsSUB-treated females) (B) and skin (n = 5 per group) (C) bitten by infected females. Data are shown as mean ± SEM of two independent experiments. Statistical significance was determined using the Mann–Whitney tests in (B) and Student’s t-tests in (C). *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.005.
