<p>Persistence of the <i>mgsA</i> mutant in ticks.</p>

Acquisition and persistence of WT (black circles), ∆<i>mgsA</i> mutant (white circles), <i>mgsA</i>⁺ (dark gray circles) was assessed in ticks one week after larvae fed to repletion (A), following the molt to nymphs, nine weeks later (B) and one week after nymphs fed to repletion on naïve mice (C).

DNA from infected ticks was isolated at each stage and <i>B. burgdorferi</i> load in ticks measured by TaqMan qPCR using primers/probe to <i>flaB</i>. Bars represent the mean. There was no significant difference between the means as determined by one-way ANOVA with a Tukey’s <i>post-hoc</i> test.</p>