Mutualism in disguise: A mosquito parasite with mixed transmission mode displays mutualistic traits promoting oogenesis
Fig 5
Principal Component Analysis and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the Ascogregarina taiwanensis transcriptome.
(a) Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of de novo transcriptome profiles from As. taiwanensis within 5 parasitized Ae. albopictus females across four physiological stages: unmated (UNMAT), mated (MATED), one day after blood meal (1DABM), and three days after blood meal (3DABM). Each dot represents the parasite transcriptome associated with an individual host. (b) A Venn diagram and UpSet plot summarize the number and overlap of DEGs identified across stages. A total of 438 DEGs were detected using pairwise comparisons and Wald tests with Benjamini-Hochberg correction. Among them, 378 DEGs were specific to a single life stage (red), while 60 were shared across multiple stages (dark red).