Figure 3.
BFD1 Is Necessary for Formation of Brain Cysts in Mice
(A) Timeline of mouse infections. Groups of CD-1 female mice were inoculated i.p. with 500 tachyzoites per animal from each strain or mock inoculated with PBS. Cyst formation was assayed in moribund animals starting 2 weeks post-infection and in all surviving animals at 5 weeks post-infection.
(B) Mean normalized weights of animals in each group. Graph represents mean ± SEM for all surviving animals at a given time point. Graphs are for n = 5 mock-inoculated mice and n = 15 for each parasite strain. (C) Survival curve of animals in (B).
(D) Representative cysts from WT and ΔBFD1::BFD1WT-infected animals. The cyst wall was stained with DBL (green) and individual parasites with anti-CDPK1 (magenta). Scale bar is 20 μm.
(E) Cyst burden per animal, denoting those sacrificed before (open circles) or after (closed circles) 5 weeks of infection. Cysts per brain were estimated from counting four blinded replicates, with a limit of detection of 56–71 cysts per brain, depending on the volume of the sample analyzed. Mean is plotted for each group. ∗∗p < 0.01, Student’s one-tailed t test.
See also Figure S3.