PRIMARY OXIDATION OF SOME ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN REMOISTENED AIR-DRIED SOIL

Abstract

The effect of adding citrate, caproate, acetate, lactate, alanine, or glutamate on the respiration curves obtained from remoistened soil was studied. The curves can be analyzed as proposed in our experiments with glucose. The curves with caproate and acetate are different from the basic type described with glucose; these two acids inhibited the endogenous respiration. The amount of oxygen consumed during primary oxidation was approximately one-half of the amount necessary for complete oxidation with all substrates studied. Glutamate was most favorable for enzyme synthesis. The oxidation of alanine was very similar to that of lactate. Further study of respiration curves, especially those of acetate and caproate, might be useful in elucidation of soil oxidations.