What is the role of carbon in microbial nutrition and role of microbes to improve crop productivity and soil health?
Dear Rk Naresh
Carbon is essential for microbial nutrition, as it provides energy and carbon sources for growth and metabolism. Microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, obtain carbon from organic matter and use various carbon compounds as building blocks. They play a crucial role in improving crop productivity and soil health through nutrient cycling, nitrogen fixation, disease suppression, plant growth promotion, and soil structure and fertility. Microbes break down complex organic compounds into simpler forms, releasing essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur for plant growth. They also suppress plant diseases by competing with pathogens, producing antimicrobial compounds, or inducing plant defense mechanisms.
Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and mycorrhizal fungi establish symbiotic relationships with plant roots, promoting growth and protecting plants from stressors. Proper soil management, organic amendments, and microbial inoculants can harness the beneficial activities of microbes, enhancing crop productivity and contributing to sustainable agricultural practices.
Soil microbes can break down plant organic matter to carbon dioxide or convert it to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) compounds. This leads either to long-term carbon storage, because DOC can bind to soil particles, or to the release of carbon back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Carbon sources taken by the cell serve as substrates of the metabolic network, in which they are broken down to supply pools of amino acids and other components that make up a cell. Glucose can be used by many microorganisms as carbon source. One-carbon metabolism ultimately delivers one-carbon moiety to many biologic reactions, including nucleotide synthesis and biological methylation, that are needed to synthesize essential components of cells and tissues and to maintain body homeostasis. Certain species of microorganisms are said to be facultative. These species grow in either the presence or absence of oxygen. Some bacteria species are microaerophilic, meaning that they grow in low concentrations of oxygen. In some cases, these organisms must have an environment rich in carbon dioxide. The carbon sources were acetate (CH3COO-), glucose (C6H12O6), pyruvate (CH3COCO2H), glycolate (C2H4O3) and L-amino acids (H2NCHRCOOH, were R is an organic substituent). These carbon sources have a proven importance for the growth of bacteria. Plant microbiomes are agriculturally important bioresources for agriculture as beneficial microbes may enhance plant growth and improve plant nutrition uptake through solubilization of P, K, and Zn, nitrogen fixation, and other mechanisms including siderophore production. Beneficial soil microbes perform fundamental functions such as nutrient cycling, breaking down crop residues, and stimulating plant growth. While the role of microbes to maintain soil health and contribute to crop performance is clear, the soil biological component is extremely difficult to observe and manage. Biofertilizers are the rhizobacteria that under particular conditions mainly enhance plant growth via providing required nutrition. The bacteria can accelerate certain microbial processes in the soil that augment the availability of nutrients in a form easy to assimilate by plants. As microorganisms help break down organic matter, they release essential nutrients and carbon dioxide into the soil, fix nitrogen and help transform nutrients into mineral forms that plants can use through a process of mineralization.
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