Fig. 1

The dot plots of the representative transcriptional markers identified in the priests. Dots represent subjects (circle, priests; square, controls), and line represents median. Eight genes were selected for validation by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). qRT-PCR data are normalized to the housekeeping gene GAPDH. Differences of each transcript were compared using a Mann–Whitney U test, indicating P value and the effect size r. a MX1 (P = 0.0015, r = − 0.676), b IFI27 (P = 0.0115, r = − 0.558), c IFIT1 (P = 0.0433, r = − 0.456), d IFIT3 (P = 0.0115, r = − 0.558), e RSAD2 (P = 0.0068, r = − 0.592), f IFI44L (P = 0.0433, r = − 0.456), g HERC5 (P = 0.0029, r = − 0.642), and h C17orf97 (P = 0.0089, r = − 0.583). Statistical significance was defined as P < 0.05. Cohen’s guidelines for the effect sizes (r) for Mann–Whitney U test are that a large effect is 0.5, a medium effect is 0.3, and small effect is 0.1 [28]