Figure 4.

Intra-peritoneal challenge of SCID mice can be used to test the virulence of NMII mutants. (A) Genome equivalents calculated using TaqMan real-time PCR with DNA purified from infected spleens of 5 mice per group on day 14 after challenge with 1 × 10⁶ GE equivalents of the strains shown. (B) Genome equivalents calculated using TaqMan real-time PCR with DNA purified from infected lungs of 5 mice per group on day 14 after challenge with 1 × 10⁶ GE equivalents of the strains listed in the figure legend. (C) Splenomegaly calculated as spleen weight as a percentage of total body weight at the time of necropsy on day 14 after infection with 1 × 10⁶ GE equivalents of the strains listed in the figure legend. For all panels, the data was analyzed using One-way ANOVA followed by the Dunnett's multiple comparisons test against NMII with Prism GraphPad software and significance is displayed using ^* for P < 0.05, ^*** for P < 0.005, and ^**** for P < 0.0001. Error bars represent standard deviations from the mean.