Figure 2.

Toxoplasma gondii infection increased α2u-globulins production in liver and excretion in urine. Infection enhanced α2u-globulins mRNA abundance in the liver (a). Ordinate depicts PCR cycles needed to reach a threshold when using α2u-globulins primers minus when using GAPDH primers (a housekeeping gene). Box plot depicts median, 25th percentile and 75th percentile. *P<0.05; exact Mann–Whitney test. N =7. Liver and urine from infected animals contained greater amounts of α2u-globulin protein. N=6 control, 8 infected (liver); N=7 (urine) (b). Ordinate depicts densitometric intensity, normalized to intensity of a pooled sample run in the same gel. Same pooled samples were used in all gels of the experiment. Creatinine-adjusted urine samples were used. Both groups exhibited comparable filtration rates of urine from the kidney (creatinine content; P>0.9) and a comparable tendency to place urine marks in a novel arena (P>0.9). *P<0.05 and **P<0.01; exact Mann–Whitney test. N=7. Renatured α2u-globulins postdialysis were sufficient to recapitulate greater attractiveness (c). Females exhibited attraction to FPLC-purified HMW fraction containing α2u-globulins, even after its denaturation in 3 m guanidinium chloride, subsequent dialysis and then renaturation in buffered physiological saline to remove all bound volatiles. N=12 females.