FIGURE 9.

Sodalis glossinidius recolonization in the tsetse fly assessed after exposing S. glossinidius-free flies to 10⁶ CFU S. glossinidius on day 8 post-eclosion via intrathoracic microinjection and per os (Gmm^Sod–/Sod+). (A) Monitoring of the S. glossinidius density using a standard curve-based S. glossinidius-specific qPCR assay on DNA isolated from the fly abdomen at multiple time points after exposure; N = 8 independent replicates per time point. As a control, the S. glossinidius density was obtained in flies injected with sterile saline (Gmm^{Sod–/saline}); N = 3 independent replicates per time point. Values show the bacterial density in each abdomen and are represented as the mean with the standard deviation. The number S. glossinidius CFU is represented in log-scale on the y-axis. (B) Visualization of S. glossinidius bacteria in the tsetse fly hemolymph and midgut two and five days after exposure.