MIGRATION OF BACTERIA ON SEEDLING PLANTS

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Abstract
Cucumber, maize, and soybean seeds were dipped in dilute suspensions of cells of isolates A169 or A180, culturally distinctive marker bacteria originally isolated from cucumber leaves. Seeds were planted in an autoclaved rooting medium. The relative humidity of the air around shoots was greater than 90%. Distribution of the marker bacteria and of other bacteria normally carried by seed (termed normal bacteria) was characteristic on shoots of a given plant species, as determined by printing shoot parts on agar. Bacteria occurred uniformly on prints of all parts of cucumber shoots. On prints of maize shoots, distribution was patchy, with large areas of leaves apparently carrying no bacteria. Bacteria were confined mostly to the lower stem of soybean. On prints of shoots of plants from seeds treated with a marker organism, usually the marker and normal bacteria were intermixed. Marker and normal bacteria were detected in abundance on roots of all three plant species. When marker bacteria were placed on loops of string around stems of cucumber seedlings, the markers did not migrate to other parts of plants.

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