Soil carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur status affects the metabolism of organic S but not its uptake by microorganisms

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Ma, Q., Wen, Y., Pan, W., Macdonald, A. J., Hill, P. W., Chadwick, D. R., Wu, L. and Jones, D. L. 2020. Soil carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur status affects the metabolism of organic S but not its uptake by microorganisms . Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 149, p. 107943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.107943

AuthorsMa, Q., Wen, Y., Pan, W., Macdonald, A. J., Hill, P. W., Chadwick, D. R., Wu, L. and Jones, D. L.
Abstract

Plant sulphur (S) deficiency is a worldwide concern. However, the mechanisms controlling the immobilization and mineralization of low-molecular weight organic S by soil microorganisms remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the assimilation of carbon (C) and S by soil microorganisms using uniformly 14C- or 35S-labelled cysteine and methionine. The decomposition of cysteine and methionine in the soil occurred in three steps. First, the microbial biomass (MB) rapidly immobilised the added cysteine-S (55%–63%) and methionine-S (81%–84%) in less than 30 min. Subsequently, S in the MB was released as 35S-sulphate (release of S into the soil peaked at 1 h [21.4%] and 24 h [17.3%] after adding cysteine and methionine, respectively). Lastly, the released 35SO4 2− was reutilised by microorganisms. The amount of 14CO2 and 35SO4 2− released from methionine was much lower than that from cysteine. The addition of excess glucose-C or inorganic nitrogen and S had little effect on cysteine and methionine uptake rate, but had a major effect on microbial C use efficiency (CUE) and internal S partitioning and the subsequent release of SO4 2− . We conclude that the microbial community cycles S-containing amino acids at a high rate, irrespective of soil S and N status with a large proportion of the C used in catabolic processes

KeywordsAmino acid turnover ; Dual isotope labelling; Nutrient use efficiency; Soil organic matter
Year of Publication2020
JournalSoil Biology and Biochemistry
Journal citation149, p. 107943
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.107943
PubMed IDElsevier
Web address (URL)https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/soil-biology-and-biochemistry
Open accessPublished as non-open access
FunderBBSRC Newton funding
Funder project or codeThe Rothamsted Long Term Experiments [2017-2022]
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online08 Aug 2020
Publication process dates
Accepted28 Jul 2020
PublisherElsevier
ISSN0038-0717

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