Fig 6.

Quantitative determination by qPCR of spirochete load in ear tissues of infected mice 4 weeks post-needle inoculation with wild-type or lp28-3-deficient (lp28-3⁻) spirochetes. Total DNA was extracted from ear tissues of mice infected with A3, C12, or C33, and the numbers of copies of the flaB gene of B. burgdorferi and mouse nidogen (nid) gene were determined by qPCR using gene-specific primer probe sets (see Table S1 in the supplemental material). The mean value and standard deviation are depicted as horizontal lines for both the A3 and lp28-3-deficient strains. Using Student's two-tailed t test, the means were found to be not significantly different (P value of 0.509).