Movement of newly assimilated 13C carbon in the grass Lolium perenne and its incorporation into rhizosphere microbial DNA

Clayton, S.J., Clegg, C.D., Bristow, A.W., Gregory, P.J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4118-4833, Headon , D.M. and Murray, P.J. (2010) Movement of newly assimilated 13C carbon in the grass Lolium perenne and its incorporation into rhizosphere microbial DNA. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 24 (5). pp. 535-540. ISSN 1097-0231 doi: 10.1002/rcm.4392

Abstract/Summary

One of the key processes that drives rhizosphere microbial activity is the exudation of soluble organic carbon (C) by plant roots. We describe an experiment designed to determine the impact of defoliation on the partitioning and movement of C in grass (Lolium perenne L.), soil and grass-sterile sand microcosms, using a (13)CO(2) pulse-labelling method. The pulse-derived (13)C in the shoots declined over time, but that of the roots remained stable throughout the experiment. There were peaks in the atom% (13)C of rhizosphere CO(2) in the first few hours after labelling probably due to root respiration, and again at around 100 h. The second peak was only seen in the soil microcosms and not in those with sterilised sand as the growth medium, indicating possible microbial activity. Incorporation of the (13)C label into the microbial biomass increased at 100 h when incorporation into replicating cells, as indicated by the amounts of the label in the microbial DNA, started to increase. These results indicate that the rhizosphere environment is conducive to bacterial growth and replication. The results also show that defoliation had no impact on the pattern of movement of (13)C from plant roots into the microbial population in the rhizosphere.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/32010
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Centre for Food Security Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Crop Science Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Soil Research Centre
Publisher	Wiley
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