Cold stress is one of the major abiotic stresses that negatively affects crop production worldwide. Microbial communities associated with plants growing in cold environments can promote plant growth at low temperatures and improve plant tolerance to cold stress. Thus, the development of microbial inoculants based on indigenous cold adapted endophytic bacteria could be a promising approach to protect crop plants from cold stress. This work aims at investigating the effect of bacterial endophytes from cold-adapted plants on the cold tolerance of tomato seedlings. A total of 686 endophytic bacteria were isolated from flowers, leaves and roots of three Rosaceae plants growing in alpine region, using a targeted isolation method by incubation at low temperature (4°C) for long time (up to 4 weeks) on a low nutrient medium (Reasoner’s 2A agar). Bacterial isolates were identified by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene region and representative taxa were chosen for in vitro tests. In particular, isolates were characterized for their plant growth-promoting traits, such as indole3-acetic acid production, siderophore and ACC-deaminase production. Bacterial isolates will be further tested in vivo for their ability to colonize tomato roots and to promote plant growth at 15°C and 25°C, in order to select the best performing isolates for a subsequent development of microbial inoculants.