Abstract
The rates of D- and L-amino acid induced respiration in 11 different soils have been determined. D-alanine induced respiration was either less than or not significantly different from L-alanine induced respiration, depending on the soil. For all 11 soils, D-glutamine and D-glutamic acid induced respiration rates were significantly less than -those of the corresponding L-amino acids. These observations are consistent with the slower rates of D-alanyl-D-alanine compared with L-alanyl-L-alanine induced respiration and of D-glutamine induced ammonification compared with L-glutamine induced ammonification. The rates of L-amino acid induced respiration for all 11 soils were significantly correlated with the size of the soil microbial biomass (R 2 = 0.90, 0.88 and 0.93 for L-alanine, L-glutamine and L-glutamic acid, respectively) and therefore provide an alternative basis for determining soil microbial biomass. Although the rates of D-amino acid induced respiration were also correlated with soil microbial biomass (R 2 = 0.90, 0.79 and 0.61, for D-alanine, D-glutamine and D-glutamic acid, respectively), the D-glutamine and D-glutamic acid induced respiration rates accounted for a smaller fraction of the variation in soil microbial biomass than the rates of respiration induced by the other amino acids.
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Hopkins, D.W. (1996). D- and L-amino acid metabolism in soil. In: Van Cleemput, O., Hofman, G., Vermoesen, A. (eds) Progress in Nitrogen Cycling Studies. Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences, vol 68. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5450-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5450-5_11
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