PD progression in grapevines inoculated with wild-type X. fastidiosa and the algU::nptII mutant. Disease severity was based on a visual disease scale of 0 to 5 and was assessed 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks after inoculation (19). The data are an average of 10 independent replications. For each time point, different letters indicate significant differences (Student's t test, P < 0.05) between the wild type and the mutant.