Figure 7. The effect of gumD deletion on bacterial virulence in Xoc.

Xoc virulence to rice was greatly attenuated when gumD was deleted, but was unaltered in the ΔpgaA, ΔpgaC, ΔxagA and ΔxagB mutant strains. Virulence of the ΔgumD mutant was restored by the introduction of full-length gumD into the ΔgumD(gumD) strain. The length of disease lesions was measured at 20 days after pressure inoculation. Ten to 15 leaves were scored for each strain; means ± SE are shown. The experiments were repeated three times with similar results.