Fig. 3

Impact of short-term gametocyte blood meal storage on gametocyte infectivity. Mosquito infection rate was evaluated from gametocyte blood-meals that were stored for 15 min at a range of temperatures (RT, 30 °C, 38 °C, 40 °C and 42 °C) and compared to the control storage at 35.5 °C (safe storage temperature for 4-h storage). A total of 30–60 mosquitoes in 2 or 3 cups were used for each experimental condition. Each experiment was performed twice, with each graph (a–f) representing the results from independent replicate experiments. Graphs show the intensity of oocyst infection (number of oocysts per mosquito) on the left Y axis (circles) and prevalence of infection (% of mosquitoes infected) on the right Y axis (bars), and the lines indicate the median. Groups were compared by Kruskal–Wallis test comparing each experimental condition to the control (35.5 °C) with Dunns multiple comparison test