Fig. 4

Screening of A. tetraptera infection in faeces of the breeding mice using the LNA-TaqMan assay. a The indicated A. tetraptera eggs were added into fresh faeces collected from healthy mice and subsequently precipitated by ethanol after the dilution with TE buffer. qPCR was conducted in triplicates using the LNA-based TaqMan probe and LNA-based primers as described in the “Materials and methods” section (left panel). The region of dashed line in the left panel was enlarged (right panel) b The faeces in the cages of the breeding mice were collected and diluted with TE buffer. The dilutions were precipitated by ethanol, and then qPCR was conducted using LNA-based TaqMan probes and LNA-based primers as described in the “Materials and methods” section. Representative data of the qPCR in 3 independent experiments are shown. c The copy number of A.tetraptera DNA in faeces collected from each cage was determined using Ct values as observed in (b). The data represent the mean ± SE obtained from 3 independent experiments. *P < 0.05 (one-way ANOVA with post-hocTukey’s multiple comparison test). d Photographs are representative data of the adult pinworm (1) in the mouse colon and the egg (2) in the faeces that were detected in the cages. Scale bars, 500 μm (1), 50 μm (2)