Fig. 1

a–r Bacterial and immune dynamics of individual rodents. Bacterial loads (solid lines, left y-axis) and Bartonella-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody levels in plasma (faded lines, right y-axis) of five Gerbillus andersoni (green; a–f), five Gerbillus gerbillus (red; g–l), and five Gerbillus pyramidum (purple; m–r) were tracked in a 200-day experiment. All individuals were inoculated with wild-type Bartonella krasnovii A2 strain at day 0 and then reinoculated at day 140 (vertical dashed line), except for the three control rodents that were first inoculated with phosphate-buffered saline and only inoculated with Bartonella at day 140. All inocula contained 10⁷ colony-forming units. Data are log (y + 1) transformed to facilitate comparison between species and parameters. e, i, j, and m Bacterial and immune dynamics are truncated due to the unexpected death of the individuals before the end of the experiment. l The axis break and inverted triangle indicate the switch between control individuals due to the death of the original rodent