Fig. 3
Survival to fungal infection. Male flies were either covered with spores (a, b, labelled as natural infection) or pricked in the thorax with a needle dipped in a concentrated fungal spore suspension (c–f). Data were analyzed by log-rank test. Shown are representative experiments of a minimum of two independent repeats (three where a difference from the control flies was observed). x-axis: time post-infection in days; y-axis: percentage of living flies. a–c Statistically significant differences were observed between TEPq Δ and wild-type (w 1118) flies (P < 0.001 for B. bassiana, both natural infection and pricking; P = 0.0039 for M. anisopliae). d–f No statistically significant difference was observed between the TEPq Δ and the wild-type (w 1118) flies in the case of N. crassa, A. fumigatus and C. albicans infection by septic injury. g Quantification of B. bassiana DNA 3 days post-infection normalised to the host RpL32 DNA. Values represent the mean ± standard error (SE) of three independent experiments and were analysed using Mann-Whitney test (two-sided). The quantity of fungal DNA is significantly elevated in the TEPq Δ flies as compared to the control w 1118 line (P < 0.001). Overactivation of the Toll pathway in TEPq Δ flies by overexpressing ModSP rescues the increased fungal growth caused by the absence of TEPq Δ (P = 0.005)