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Fig. 3 | Microbiome

Fig. 3

From: The tick endosymbiont Candidatus Midichloria mitochondrii and selenoproteins are essential for the growth of Rickettsia parkeri in the Gulf Coast tick vector

Fig. 3

Total bacterial load (BL), Francisella-like endosymbiont (FLE) load, and Candidatus Midichloria mitochondrii (CMM) load in eggs, unfed larva, blood-fed larva, unfed nymphs, and blood-fed nymphs. R. parkeri-infected (Rp+) and uninfected (Rp−) A. maculatum gravid females were allowed to oviposit, and approximately 25 days after egg incubation, about 20 mg of the egg masses were sampled from three gravid females separately. When the remaining eggs hatched into larvae, the unfed larvae were allowed to feed on the blood of an individual hamster until repletion occurred. The dropped-off larvae were collected and three from each Rp+ and Rp− group were stored in RNAlater. The remaining engorged larvae were incubated for 30 days at which point they molted into nymphal ticks, and the unfed nymphs were blood-fed until repletion. Three engorged nymphs from the Rp+ and Rp− groups were stored in RNAlater. Three biological replicates were used for all the treatments. The total bacterial load, FLE, and CMM copies/ tick GAPDH in Rp+ and Rp− ticks were determined using gene-specific primers (Additional file 5: Table S1). Total bacterial load, FLE and CMM loads in eggs (a, b, c), larva (d, e, f), and nymphal ticks (g, h, i) are shown. uFL, unfed larva; FL, fed larva; uFN, unfed nymph; FN, fed nymphs

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