Record ID No. |
431 |
Author(s) |
Colin Averill, Adrien Finzi , 2013 |
Affiliation |
Boston University, Biology Department, 5 Cummington Street, Boston MA 02215, USA, email: colin.averill@mail.utexas.edu |
Title |
Reprint of "Plant regulation of microbial enzyme production in situ" |
Source. Vol.(no):Page |
Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 56: 49-52p. Special Issue: Interactions of Soil Minerals with Organic Components and Microorganisms VII and Enzymes in the Environment IV |
Categories |
Mycorrhiza General |
Subjects |
Biochemistry |
Sub-subjects |
Nitrogen metabolism |
Host |
Plants |
Organism |
Microbes (Mycorrhizal fungi) |
Country |
USA, N. America |
Abstracts |
Soil extracellular enzymes regulate the rate at which complex organic forms of nitrogen (N) become bio-available. Much research has focused on the limitations to heterotrophic enzyme production via lab incubations, but little has been done to understand the limitations to enzyme production in situ. We created root and symbiotic mycelia exclusion treatments using mesh in-growth bags in the field to isolate the effect of roots and other portions of the microbial community on enzyme production. When fertilized with complex protein N we found increases in N-degrading enzyme concentrations only when root in-growth was allowed. No response was observed when complex N was added to root-free treatments. Expanding on economic rules of microbial element limitation theory developed from lab incubation data, we suggest this is due to active transport of labile carbon (C) from roots to associated microbial communities in root bags. Roots alleviate C-limitation of microbial enzyme synthesis, representing a trade off between plants and microbes- plant C for microbial derived N. |