Fig. 4

Stage-specific expression patterns of Cry receptor-related genes and a gut repair gene in different life stages of G. mellonella. Fold change in expression of a candidate gene in different developmental (second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-instar) stages was quantified in relation to the gene’s expression in first-instar stage (value set at 1). Significant differential expression is indicated by different letters (P < 0.01, Tukey’s HSD test). G. mellonella 18S rRNA and EF-1α genes were used as the internal reference. Each bar represents the mean fold change value ± SE of qPCR runs in five biological and three technical replicates