The ability of Pantoea brenneri strains 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 to colonize wheat plants was studied to evaluate their potential for development of bacterial biological products. The cells of strains 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 were capable of maintaining a plasmid with the Tomato fluorescent protein for 144 h. It was shown for the first time that P. brenneri colonize both roots and leaves of plants: the highest number of cells was observed on the roots of seedlings treated with the P. brenneri strain 3.5.1 Tomato (2.5 × 1011 CFU/g). The plating of bacteria from leaves resulted in lower colony numbers compared to roots (4.5 × 1010 and 1 × 108 CFU/g for strains 3.5.1 and 3.5.2, respectively). The most effective colonization with P. brenneri was observed with pre-sowing seed treatment. The obtained results reveal the physiological characteristics of P. brenneri and demonstrate the potential for using strains of this species as biofertilizers.
Sokolnikova et al. (Mon,) studied this question.