*4.5. RNA-Seq Preperation*

RNA-seq reads were mapped to the *Mus Musculus* reference genome GRCm38 using STAR v2.4.2a [42], supplied with gene annotations downloaded from Ensembl release 82. Expression levels for each gene were quantified using HTseq-count [43]. Samples were classified as ricin or control, with 3 replicates per group. Di fferential expression analysis was performed using DESeq2 [44] *R* package.
