Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Soil Microbiology
Soil microbiology is the study of organisms that live in the soil. The main trust of study is on their metabolic and their roles in energy flow and cycling of nutrients associated with primary productivity the energy flow and activities. The discipline is also concerned with the environmental impacts, both favorable and unfavorable, of soil microorganisms and the processes the mediate.
1. Soil Microbiology
Soil microbiology is concerned with microbial communities in soil and what they do. It uses a synecology approach process oriented Autoecology approach - uses more of an individual approach.
2. Soil Biochemistry
Traditionally biochemistry has been defined as the chemistry that deals with life processes of plants and animals. The scientific discipline of soil biochemistry follows this tradition. Many of the reactions the soil biochemist investigates result from the activities of living tissues, e.g. microorganisms and plants.
2. Soil Biochemistry
In addition, the study of soil organic matter its origin and biochemical reactivities, are also included in the domain of soil biochemistry even though these may no longer be in association with any living system.
2. Soil Biochemistry
In 1946 J.H. Quastel proposed that the soil as a whole can be considered an organ comparable in some respect to a liver or a gland to which may be added various nutrients, pure or complex degraded plant materials, rain, air and in which enzymatic reactions occur.
2. Soil Biochemistry
The products of these reactions are important steps in elemental cycles, in the percolation of iron and aluminum humates, in the formation of soil crumb structure, and in other processes.
2. Soil Biochemistry
The notion here is that the soil biochemist is concerned more with what the microbes are doing in the soil than with precisely what the microbes are with respect to size and shape or the ingredients of taxonomic schemes.
2. Soil Biochemistry
In this course we will study soil biochemistry using this concept which views the soil as a tissue, containing many kinds of compounds, to which biochemical principles can be applied. Soil Cell Membrane
3. Overview of Metabolism
Metabolism refers to all the chemical processes that take place within a cell. It is composed of two basic reactions:
- A. - B.
Anabolism Catabolism
Anabolic reactions require energy to synthesize complex molecules from simpler ones.
3. Overview of Metabolism
Catabolic reactions release energy by braking complex molecules. All catabolic reactions involve electron transfer, which allows energy to be captured in high energy bonds
4. Microbial Nutrition
Nutrients
- Chemical tools needed to make monomers.
Essential Nutrients
- C H,O, P,K,N, S, Ca, Fe, Mg,
Macronutrients
- Needed in large amounts - Include C, H, O, P, S, K, Mg, Na, Ca, Fe
4. Microbial Nutrition
Growth Factors
- Organic compounds required in very small amounts and only by some cells. - Include vitamins, amino acids, and nucleotides .
Culture Media
Culture media are nutrients solutions used to grow microorganisms. Two broad classes
- A. Chemically defined-prepared by adding precise amounts of highly purified inorganic or organic chemicals and distilled water. - B. Undefined (complex)-These are made up of digest of casein, beef, soybean, yeast cells other highly nutritious substances.
One of the fundamental properties of living organisms is their requirement of energy. Phototrophs, meet their energy requirements by absorption of a quanta of solar radiation.
Organic Compounds
Biological Oxidations
Biological oxidations reactions are frequently dehydrogenation reactions. Biological oxidation reactions almost always involve two electron transfers. In chemotrophic energy metabolism the ultimate energy acceptor of electrons is frequently oxygen.
Biological Oxidations
The electrons are generally passed to the final electron acceptor through intermediate electrons acceptors In most biological oxidations, the immediate electron acceptor is one of several coenzymes-specialized molecules that function specifically as carriers of electrons.
Biological Oxidations
The most common coenzymes are NAD+, NADP+ and FAD Aerobic energy metabolism involves stepwise process collectively called respiration. Under anaerobic conditions, oxygen is not available as electron acceptor, and the electrons are passed instead to some organic or inorganic molecule .
Biological Oxidations
All anaerobic processes are called fermentations and they are usually further identified in terms of the principal end product i.e. the reduced form of the organic or inorganic electron acceptor.
6. Oxygen Requirements
Organisms with an absolute requirement for oxygen are strict or obligate aerobes.
- Most higher animals are in this category.
6. Oxygen Requirements
Facultative organisms are those which can exist anaerobically, extracting energy from glucose (or other organic substrates) by fermentative processes, but which can also function in the presence of oxygen, in which case they carry out the full respiratory sequence.
7. Methods of Metabolism
All classes of energy yielding reactions can be classed under four main groups: 1. Respiration 2. Fermentative reactions 3. Chemoautotrophic reactions. 4. Photosynthetic
Aerobic Respiration
Organic Compounds
O2
Anaerobic Respiration
Organic Compounds
Inorganic compound
Anaerobic respiration
Anaerobic
Heterofermentative
Organic Compounds
Multifermentative
Organic Compounds
Isofermentative
Organic Compounds
Fermentation
Aerobic or anaerobic
An organic molecule
Substrate-level
Aerobic respiration
Aerobic
38
Anaerobic respiration
Anaerobic
Usually an inorganic substance (such as NO3-, SO42-, CO32- ), but not free oxygen (O2).
Oxidative
Variable
Class
Electron Donor
Electron Acceptor
Products
CO2
Organic Compounds
O2
Organic Compounds
Same molecule or fragment of it Same molecule or fragment of it. Different organic compound or CO2
Heterofermentative
Organic Compounds
Multifermentative
Organic Compounds
Organic compounds
Isofermentative
Organic Compounds
Anerobic Respiration
Organic Compounds
Inorganic compound
Chemoautotrophic (Chemolitotroph)
Inorganic Compounds