Fig. 7: ROCY1 is necessary for tissue cyst formation in mice but not for parasite persistence.
a Quantification of bioluminescent imaging of mice infected with TgVEG WT-GFP-LUC, TgVEGΔROCY1-GFP-LUC, and TgVEGΔBFD1-GFP-LUC parasite (N = 6). Each point represents an individual mouse and the line represents the mean. Statistical significance determined by two way ANOVA and Tukey’s Multiple Comparison post-test. b Mean and standard deviation of weight loss over the course of the experiment in A, with statistical significance assessed by two Way ANOVA and Tukey’s Multiple Comparison post-test; N = 10 mice per parasite strain. c Brain tissue cyst burden observed at 4 weeks post-infection for experiment in A. Mean and standard deviation are plotted and each point represents and individual mouse. Statistical significance was determined using a Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparisons (***: P ≤ 0.001; **: P ≤ 0.01; (limit of detection = 7 cysts). d Representative images of TgVEG:WT and TgVEGΔROCY1 brain cysts stained with rhodamine-labeled DBA. e Quantification of parasite genomes per brain in infected mice at 4 weeks post infection. Mean and standard deviation are plotted. Each point represents an individual mouse. Statistical significance was determined using a one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test on ΔCt values. f Immunohistochemistry from intact brains using anti-GFP antibodies to localize T. gondii parasites taken from mice infected with the indicated strain for 30 days. Two representative images from a single mouse for each infecting strain are shown. g Quantification of in vivo bioluminescence imaging of mice infected with TgVEG WT or TgVEGΔROCY1 parasites and representative images showing higher dorsal bioluminescent signal in mice infected with ROCY1-knockout parasites. Data were quantified on days 12–18 and images are shown for days 13 and 33 postinfection. N = 8 mice for WT and N = 9 mice for ΔROCY1. h Flow cytometric quantification of immune cells (mean +/- SD) in the brain of WT and ROCY1 knockout parasites at day 21 post-infection in the brains of mice infected with TgVEGΔROCY1 (N = 7) compared to TgVEG:WT (N = 5). This experiment was performed twice and data from both experiments are pooled. Data are provided as a Source Data File.
