Fig 5. Quantitative assessment of B. burgdorferi load from infected mouse tissues.
Quantitative PCR (qPCR) of tissues from mice infected with the parental strain (black circles; n = 5), the ittA mutant (red squares; n = 5), and the genetic complement (blue triangles; n = 4) was used to enumerate borrelial genomic equivalents relative to the murine samples. Mice were infected with 103 dose of B. burgdorferi strains for 21 days. Tissues tested are shown at the bottom: PS for peripheral ear skin; SK for abdomen skin at the site of infection; LN for Lymph node; HT for heart; and JT for the tibiotarsal joint. The results are represented as the number of borrelial recA genomic copies per 106 mouse β-actin copies. The horizontal line in each data set depicts the mean value. Each data point shown represents an independent sample from a single mouse tissue assayed in triplicate and averaged. * p < 0.05; *** p < 0.001.