Metadata for RNAseq project analysing differential expression in Culex pipiens mosquitoes infected by two avian Plasmodium species

[Description of methods used for collection/generation of data] We collected birds infected by Plasmodium cathemerium and Plasmodium relictum and uninfected birds. We collected mosquito larvae that were raised in the lab. Adult mosquitoes were divided in 3 groups allowed them to feed overnight on a P. relictum-infected bird, a P. cathemerium-infected bird and an uninfected control bird. For transcriptome analyses, we processed mosquitoes at three time points after exposure, 24 hours post-infection (hpi), 10 days post-infection (dpi) and 21 dpi. At each time point, we created pools of 5 mosquitoes of each infection status capturing the mosquitoes alive and immediately transferring them to dry ice. We preserved the mosquitoes at -80ºC until RNA extractions were carried out. We collected a total of 36 samples including controls (4 pools x 3 time points x 3 conditions). We extracted RNA and DNA from pools of 5 mosquitoes using TRIzol® (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) followed by column purification using RNeasy mini kit® (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany). RNA samples were submitted to the Polo d’Innovazione di Genomica, Genetica e Biologia, Siena (Italy) where library preparation and sequencing were carried out.