Fig. 1
Systemic challenge with pathogens of varying virulence in Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae (s.l.) reveals transcriptional signatures of bacterial and fungal infection. Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae (s.l.) mosquitoes were mock injected or challenged with live and heat-killed (HK) Gram-negative, Gram-positive, and fungal pathogens of varying virulence, here quantified by % mortality at 4-days post challenge (A). Data in B-E are the product of two RNAseq experiments. Experiment #1 generated transcriptomes from mosquitoes in the following conditions: unchallenged (UC); mock wounded (Mock, 12- and 36-hour); live-challenged (3000 colony-forming units, CFUs) with Escherichia coli (Ec), Erwinia carotovora carotovora 15 (Ecc15), Serratia marcescens type strain (Sm), Providencia rettgeri (Pr), Staphylococcus aureus (Sa), Micrococcus luteus (Ml), Enterococcus faecalis (Ef), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc) and Candida albicans (Ca) (12- and 36-hour); and challenged with the HK equivalent of 3000 CFUs of Ec and Ef (12-hour only). Note that, for Sm- and Pr-challenged mosquitoes, survival was too low at 36 hours to complete the second timepoint. Experiment #2 generated transcriptomes from mosquitoes in the following conditions: UC; live-challenged (3000 injected conidia) with Beauveria bassiana (Bb) and Metarhizium anisopliae (Ma) (12- and 36-hour); and challenged with OD600 = 100 HK Ec, Ef, and Ca (12-hour only). Principal component analyses display the results in Ae. aegypti and An. gambiae, respectively, of experiments #1 (B and C) and #2 (D and E)