Symbiotic fixation of atmospheric nitrogen

Claim 2

A process for fixing gaseous nitrogen consisting essentially in the steps of providing an aqueous culture medium consisting essentially of undifferentiated plant cells derived from the family Leguminosae, said culture medium containing a plurality of nutrient materials selected from the group consisting of plant growth factors, mineral salts, carbohYdrates and vitamins, in quantities sufficient to favor growth of the plant cells, aseptically inoculating the undifferentiated plant cells in the aqueous culture medium with live soil bacteria of the genus Rhizobium, maintaining the inoculated culture medium in aseptic condition for about 2 to 10 days at a temperature of about 20*C. to 30*C. to allow the bacteria to enter into the plant cells, aseptically transferring the undifferentiated plant cells and their contained bacteria to a sterile nutrient culture medium substantially free of exogenous plant growth factors, and aseptically maintaining the culture medium for a further period of about one to two weeks in the presence of gaseous nitrogen to allow the system to fix gaseous nitrogen.