TABLE 1.

Quantitation of parasite loads in BALB/c mice infected i.p. with WT or Δsrs9 tachyzoites

Strain and area of infection	Parasite load on daya:
	0	5	9	14	18	22	28	35
Total ventral
WT	363 ± 28	7,813 ± 5,665	23,813 ± 27,162	1,518 ± 764	543 ± 116	438 ± 57	417 ± 71	347 ± 214
Δsrs9	350 ± 32	7,623 ± 2,450	20,598 ± 17,482	958 ± 401	881 ± 262	476 ± 97	493 ± 47	436 ± 140
Neck
WT	48 ± 5	60 ± 7	254 ± 110	110 ± 23	51 ± 7	47 ± 11	46 ± 10	51 ± 7
Δsrs9	50 ± 3	55 ± 8	296 ± 85	85 ± 24	66 ± 15	40 ± 9	48 ± 5	53 ± 9
Chest
WT	92 ± 5	164 ± 14	402 ± 296	237 ± 99	105 ± 16	99 ± 8	89 ± 3	90 ± 7
Δsrs9	93 ± 4	205 ± 33	435 ± 102	192 ± 96	141 ± 29	98 ± 11	87 ± 5	89 ± 4
Abdomen
WT	262 ± 33	8,560 ± 4,160	23,254 ± 26,717	1,160 ± 807	364 ± 79	304 ± 56	264 ± 38	250 ± 73
Δsrs9	279 ± 33	7,350 ± 2,413	19,940 ± 17,354	719 ± 356	658 ± 184	333 ± 84	328 ± 39	281 ± 106
Total dorsal
WT	296 ± 16	ND	ND	601 ± 253	343 ± 50	354 ± 36	293 ± 24	294 ± 40
Δsrs9	298 ± 15	ND	ND	639 ± 130	740 ± 115	438 ± 20	281 ± 11	297 ± 23
Brain
WT	68 ± 8	ND	ND	178 ± 53	72 ± 12	67 ± 7	73 ± 9	74 ± 4
Δsrs9	70 ± 7	ND	ND	128 ± 50	123 ± 36	88 ± 21	74 ± 4	72 ± 5

^aParasite loads are presented as photon flux detected by BLI in the regions of interest defined in Fig. 2B. Four mice per group were infected with the WT or Δsrs9 strain (500 tachyzoites i.p.). Mean levels of flux (10³ photons/s/cm²/sr) ± standard deviations are shown. Notable differences are indicated in boldface and include the chest signals on day 5 (P = 0.07); total ventral signals (P = 0.06), abdominal signals (P = 0.03), total dorsal signals (P = 0.004), and brain signals (P = 0.04) on day 18; and total dorsal signals (P = 0.01) on day 22. ND, not determined, as brain signals do not appear until >10 days after infection.