Figure 5

Immunofluorescence (IF) confocal analysis of Anopheles gambiae mating plugs dissected from freshly mated females. IF reveals that AGAP005194 is found on the surface of mating plug: a) a mating plug showing staining with AGAP005194 (green) and Plugin (red), the major mating plug protein. The two proteins show a good level of co-localization. Letters 'a' and 'p' stand for anterior and posterior, the first and last part of the mating plug to enter the female atrium, respectively; 'Sm' stands for sperm mass, comprising sperm that did not enter the spermatheca and remained attached to the anterior part of the plug. Scale bar: 80 μm. b) A magnification of the posterior tip of the plug, showing staining with AGAP005194 (left), Plugin (centre) and the overlay (right). Scale bar: 20 μm