Phenotypes produced by RNAi of <i>TcCHT7</i>.

<p>ds<i>TcCHT7</i> (<i>CHT7</i>) or ds<i>TcVer</i> (<i>Ver</i>) was injected in the late larval stage (200 ng per insect; n = 30). (A) To analyze knockdown level of <i>TcCHT7</i> transcripts by real-time PCR, total RNA was isolated from pharate adults (5 d-old pupae). Expression levels of <i>TcCHT7</i> in ds<i>TcCHT7</i>-treated insects are presented relative to the levels in the ds<i>TcVer</i>-treated control. An asterisk indicates a significant difference in transcript levels of <i>TcCHT7</i> between control and test insects (p = 4.76E-05, <i>t</i>-test). Data are shown as the mean value ± SE (n <b>=</b> 3). (B-D) Injection of ds<i>TcCHT7</i> had no effect on larval-pupal molting or pupal development. However, the resulting pupae failed to undergo abdominal contraction, wing expansion or tightening of head, antenna and legs (arrows in D). The resulting adults (E and F) exhibited abnormally small appendages including hindwing (G), fore leg (H), middle leg (I), hind leg (J) and elytron (K) compared to those of ds<i>TcVer</i>-treated control (See <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007307#pgen.1007307.s009" target="_blank">S6 Fig</a>). Morphology of the dorsal elytral cuticle was analyzed by SEM (L and M; scale bar = 20 μm).