FIG. 4.

Percentages of viable R. solanacearum cells isolated from an infected plant that are VBNC. Tomato plants were inoculated with culturable forms of R. solanacearum. At various times after inoculation, bacteria were isolated from four different tissue samples and the concentrations of viable and culturable cells were determined as described in Materials and Methods. The percentage of viable cells that were VBNC was calculated for each of the four tissue samples: root tip (Δ), stem from the first to second node (□), first true leaf (⋄), and terminal leaf (○). Bars, standard errors.