Most of the
species of Curtobacterium were originally isolated from rice seeds (Komagata and Suzuki
1986). Curtobacterium sp. inoculated to plants inhibited Erwinia-induced bacterial disease
(Sturz and Matheson 1996), promoted plant growth (Sturz et al. 1997), and occurred as
seed-transmitted bacteria (Dunleavy 1989). Therefore, it is assumed that the Curtobacterium
isolates may display these functions in rice and propagate themselves via rice seeds.