Silencing of genes involved in Anaplasma marginale-tick interactions affects the pathogen developmental cycle in Dermacentor variabilis

Table 4 Qualitative analysis of A. marginale colonies in gut muscle, Malpighian tubule and fat body and tissue degeneration in D. variabilis after gene knockdown by RNAi.

The number of A. marginale colonies was evaluated for tick gut muscle (GM), Malpighian tubule (MT) and fat body (FB) sections after acquisition feeding (AF) and transmission feeding (TF). Scale: – (colonies not found), + (very rare; colonies found in < 10% sections), ++ (rare; colonies found in 10–39% sections), +++ (abundant; colonies found in > 40% sections). Tissue degeneration was evaluated for tick guts, salivary glands (sg), testis and fb after AF and TF. The findings were parenthesized or underlined when gene knockdown resulted in lower or higher colony counts, respectively when compared to controls.

ISSN: 1471-213X