2.10. Effects of Mr-grp78 Gene Silencing on A. hydrophila (AH) Infection

In this experiment, prawns were maintained in 9 different 10 L glass tanks with a static water temperature of 30 ± 1.2 °C for 7 days as described in the previous section. On day 8, each prawn in tanks 1–3 (dsGFP control group), 4–6 (dsGFP+AH control group) and 7–9 (dsMr-grp78+AH group) was induced with intramuscular injection of 10 µL of PBS+3 µg of dsGFP, PBS+3 µg of dsGFP or PBS+3 µg of dsMr-grp78. The prawns were then returned to their tanks, in which the temperature of water was accurately maintained at 30 ± 1.2 °C. After 2 h, every prawn in tanks 1–3 was intramuscularly injected with 10 µL of PBS, whereas the prawns in tanks 4–6 and 7–9 were intramuscularly injected with 10 µL of PBS containing 1 × 10⁷ CFU/mL A. hydrophila (prepared as described in Section 2.6). After the second injection, the behaviors and mortality of the prawns in each treatment group were recorded for 7 days, and significant differences in mortality were analyzed by using the methods described in the previous section.