Fig. 3.

Composition of the infective dose as Leishmania develop in sandflies. a–c Lutzomyia longipalpis sandflies were infected with L. mexicana amastigotes and on days 5, 7 and 9 p.i. were allowed to bite the ears of BALB/c mice once. a The total number of parasites (ssrRNA) and (b, c) the proportion of metacyclics (sherp) transmitted to the bite site was determined by RTqPCR. n = 12–16/day. Bars represent the geometric mean ± 95% C.I. Data shown are pooled from 4 independent experiments. Asterisks indicate values that are statistically significant (*P ≤ 0.05) between the indicated groups using a two-sided unpaired t-test