Patent ID: 9622485
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: A01C,A01N,G01N

Claim:
1. A method of treating seeds of a wheat plant, comprising mechanically or manually inoculating a plurality of wheat seeds with an agricultural formulation comprising an agriculturally acceptable carrier and a purified bacterial population that comprises a seed bacterial endophyte of the genus Enterobacter that is heterologous to the seed, and has a 16S nucleic acid sequence that is at least 97% identical to a 16S nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 541, 595, 540, 550, 545 and 548, in an amount effective to increase tolerance to drought of the inoculated seed as compared to a reference seed sowed under the same conditions, wherein a plant, when germinated from the inoculated seed, has increased growth as compared to a plant germinated from the reference seed.