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Ethylene Accumulation in Soil in Response to Organic Amendments

Dep. of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521

*Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

One of the major factors affecting ethylene (C₂H₄) accumulation in soil is the availability of organic substrates. Various organic compounds were screened for their stimulatory effect on C₂H₄ accumulation in soil. Since L-methionine (L-MET), a sole precursor of C₂H₄ synthesis in plants, is also an excellent precursor for microbial biosynthesis of C₂H₄, all the compounds tested were added on a C-equivalent basis with respect to 1 g L-MET kg^–1 soil. Incubation was carried out under ambient conditions (24 ± 3 °C) for 14 d and the soil was maintained at field capacity (–33 kPa). Among the 63 compounds tested, the majority of amino acids, organic acids, carbohydrates, proteins, alcohols, and MET analogs promoted C₂H₄ generation to a greater degree than did the unamended soil. Use of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) enhanced C₂H₄ synthesis much more than any other treatment (2400-fold over the unamended nonsterile control). Of the five vitamins tested, inositol was the most effective in promoting C₂H₄ production. L-Ethionine (L-ETH) was an excellent precursor among the five MET analogs. Nonbiological production of C₂H₄ was observed only upon treatment with L-MET, L-cysteine, ACC, ethanol, and L-ETH, which were 7.9, 19.0, 3.0, and 4.2% and 2.1-fold, respectively, of the total C₂H₄ detected under nonsterile amended conditions. Since the majority of these compounds are excreted by plant roots, the rhizosphere may be an active site for C₂H₄ generation.

Contribution from the Dep. of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of California.

Received for publication September 5, 1989.