US 12,279,620 B2
Encapsulation for microbial seed treatment stabilization
Anthony D. Duong, Columbus, OH (US); Ramanathan S. Lalgudi, Westerville, OH (US); Jane P. Fife, Powell, OH (US); Craig M. Bartling, Powell, OH (US); and Katarzyna Kucharzyk, Columbus, OH (US)
Assigned to Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH (US)
Appl. No. 15/777,522
Filed by Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH (US)
PCT Filed Nov. 21, 2016, PCT No. PCT/US2016/063043
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date May 18, 2018,
PCT Pub. No. WO2017/087939, PCT Pub. Date May 26, 2017.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/381,829, filed on Aug. 31, 2016.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/258,012, filed on Nov. 20, 2015.
Prior Publication US 2018/0332845 A1, Nov. 22, 2018
Int. Cl. A01N 63/36 (2020.01); A01N 25/10 (2006.01); A01N 25/28 (2006.01); A01N 63/20 (2020.01); A01N 63/27 (2020.01)
CPC A01N 63/27 (2020.01) [A01N 25/10 (2013.01); A01N 25/28 (2013.01); A01N 63/20 (2020.01); A01N 63/36 (2020.01)] 18 Claims
 
1. An agricultural seed composition comprising living microorganisms encapsulated in spherical alginate microbeads with diameters of less than 100 μm which are applied onto seeds; wherein the spherical alginate microbeads have been crosslinked with calcium ions at the interface of the microbeads in an emulsion comprising the alginate microbeads in water dispersed in a continuous oil phase; and wherein the living microorganisms comprise (1) Bradyrhizobium japonicum, Pseudomonas fluorescens or Penicillium bilaiae in the unencapsulated form, loses 8% or more of its activity at times between 2 and 8 weeks at ambient conditions when deposited on the seeds; and wherein the encapsulated Bradyrhizobium japonicum Pseudomonas fluorescens or Penicillium bilaiae is stable as measured by less than one order of magnitude change in viability for at least 8 weeks.