Fig. 5

P450139 is an inducible nematotoxic protein with a putative hemolysin domain. a The C. cinerea gene coding for P450139 is significantly induced upon nematode challenge in the microfluidic setup in a similar manner to the previously identified nematotoxic lectin, CGL2. b Phase-contrast micrographs of C. elegans fed with IPTG-induced E. coli BL21 for 72 h, containing either an ‘empty’ vector (EV) or expressing CGL2, P450139 or P450139_8His. Scale bar = 500 μm. c The toxicity of the P450139 protein was assessed against five different species of bacterivorous nematodes (1–5) and larvae of Aedes aegypti (6). IPTG-induced E.coli Bl21 bearing either the previously characterized nematotoxic protein CGL2 or an empty vector (EV) were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test was used for statistical analysis. Error bars represent standard deviation of three biological replicates. ns: not significant, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 vs. EV