<i>Tudor-SN</i> expression in response to pathogen infection.

<p>(A) Differential expression/representation of Tudor-SN and Ago genes/proteins in <i>I</i>. <i>scapularis</i> nymphs, adult female guts and salivary glands in response to infection with <i>A</i>. <i>phagocytophilum</i>. Data was obtained from transcriptomics and proteomics analyses and values are shown as infected/uninfected Log2-fold ratio (P<0.05). Abbreviations:-, down-regulated/under-represented in infected ticks; +, up-regulated/over-represented in infected ticks; NS, no significant difference between infected and uninfected ticks; NF, not found in trascriptomics or proteomics data. (B) <i>Tudor-SN</i> mRNA levels in <i>I</i>. <i>scapularis</i> ISE6 cells in response to early (day 6) and late (day 13) infections with <i>A</i>. <i>phagocytophilum</i>. Five independent experiments were conducted for each early and late infection. <i>Tudor-SN</i> mRNA levels were determined by real-time RT-PCR in uninfected and infected cells and the infected-to-uninfected ratio of Ct values normalized against tick <i>16S rRNA</i> and <i>cyclophilin</i> are shown in arbitrary units (Ave+SD). Normalized <i>Tudor-SN</i> mRNA levels were compared by Student’s t-test with unequal variance and were not statistically different between infected and uninfected cells (P = 0.05; N = 5). (C) <i>Tudor-SN</i> mRNA levels in <i>I</i>. <i>ricinus</i> ticks during TBEV infection. <i>Tudor-SN</i> mRNA levels were determined by real-time RT-PCR in the guts and salivary glands of female ticks (N = 10 ticks for each time point) uninfected and artificially infected with TBEV and fed on mice for 0, 1, 3 and 5 days. <i>Tudor-SN</i> Ct values normalized against tick <i>16S rRNA</i> are shown in arbitrary units (Ave±SD) and were used to calculate infected/uninfected ratios and compared between Days 1–5 and Day 0 by Student’s t-test with unequal variance (*P<0.05; N = 10).