A. phagocytophilum infection alters the G/F-actin ratio in tick cells. (A) Immunoblots of F-actin and G-actin in A. phagocytophilum–infected tick cells (I) in comparison with the uninfected controls (UI). Total lysate used for separation of G/F actin (supernatant/pellet) ratio was probed with anti-actin as the loading control. (B) Immunofluorescence images of uninfected and A. phagocytophilum–infected tick cells stained for F-actin (green) and G-actin (red). Bar, 10 µm. (C) Quantification of the number of filamentous cells per microscopic field, using 25 random fields, is shown. (D) The number of filaments per cell, examining 50 cells in each group, is shown. (E) The percentage of cells positive for F-actin filaments was quantified from 35 random microscopic fields. Statistics were performed using the Student’s t test and the p-value is shown. Three independent experiments yielded similar results.