Figure 8.

Conditional null mutants retain virulence in vivo in the absence of TbMLP induction. Groups of five mice were infected with the null mutant cell lines DKO1 and DKO2 in the presence or absence of doxycycline (Experimental procedures). The course of infection was followed by tail-blood parasitaemia. The chart indicates the number of parasites observed in 10 fields of a Giemsa-stained blood smear. The data were analysed with Graphpad PRISM software. For both conditional null mutants there was no significant difference between the course of parasitaemia in the presence or absence of inducer (P-values shown above bars). All mice were euthanized after 5 days to prevent unnecessary suffering in accordance with statutory requirements.