The results
confirmed that both sfbI and sof were expressed to a lesser
extent in the presence of 20 % (w/v) manuka honey (Fig. 7).
Specifically, for sbfI there were 1.49 nmol PCR product in the
20 % (w/v) manuka honey conditions, compared with
2.16 nmol with 0 % manuka honey, which equates to a
31 % reduction in expression. For sof in the presence of 20 %
(w/v) manuka honey, the amount of PCR product was below
the threshold of detection; without manuka honey, 1.73 nmol
was produced, suggesting that the expression of sof was also
reduced following treatment with a sublethal concentration of
honey. The equal amounts of glr product [2.03 nmol with no
manuka honey and 2.02 nmol with 20 % (w/v) manuka
honey] confirmed that equal amounts of RNA were used in
these reactions and that the expression of this gene was not
affected by honey treatment. Statistical analysis of the three
biological replicates showed that there was no differential
expression for glr under both conditions; for sfbI, the
difference was statistically significant (P,0.05). In all
instances sof could not be detected by densitometry following
honey treatment.