Fig. 1

Cell turnover occurs in the gut epithelium of sugar-fed Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Five-day-old females were maintained for 72 h on a diet of 10% sucrose supplemented with EdU prior to dissection. Guts were treated with a Click-iT cocktail to label EdU (green) and stained with an anti-PH3 antibody (red) and DAPI (blue). Cell counts of EdU-positive and PH3-positive cells were obtained for crop, proventriculus (Pv.), midgut (anterior and posterior) and hindgut. Representative images for the whole gut of An. gambiae and Ae. aegypti are shown in (A), (scale bar = 500 µm), with a dotted box designating the region of interest used in this study to quantify EdU incorporation (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). Magnified images of each region are shown in (B), (scale bar = 10 µm). Total counts of PH3-positive (C) and EdU-positive cells (D) were quantified in each gut region. Results are from at least three biological replicates. Values on top indicate mean values, and error bars are SEM. Three biological replicates were made, and graphs show all replicates combined. Statistics: Mann–Whitney test; *, **, and *** respectively indicate P values of < 0.05, < 0.001, and < 0.001