While epiphytic microbes are limited by the
amount of nutrients that escape onto the surface of
plants, certain microbes can avoid such limitations
by exploiting the interior of plants for growth. While
a variety of endophytic bacteria can be found inside
plants, their abundance is often relatively low
compared with the number found on the surface of
the same plant perhaps because of limitations on
entry into and movement within the plant and plant
defenses against such invasion (Hallmann et al.,
1997; Kobayashi and Palumbo, 2000)