Table 3. Competition in the absence of a blood meal.
| Strains in Competition* | Ratio (Tn mutant: Complement or WT) † |
|---|---|
| Tn::bb0017 v Complement | 4.75 (19:4) |
| Tn::bb0164 v Complement | 3.5 (7:2) |
| Tn::bb0412 v Complement | 1.33 (12:9) |
| Tn::bb0050 v WT | 1.19 (117:98) |
| Tn::bb0051 v WT | 1.88 (17:9) |
* Strains were mixed in a 1:1 ratio and used to artificially infect larvae. These larvae were processed as described above. However, to asses the ability of the strains to enter the tick, the larvae were not given a blood meal. Instead they crushed and plated on selective antibiotics at 2 h or 24 h post-infection
† The ratio represents the aggregated results from 18 individual ticks for each competition. These results include the plating experiments that were done at 2 h and 24 h post-infection. The parenthetical values are the actual number of colonies counted.