Abstract
Cyanate can serve as a nitrogen and/or carbon source for different microorganisms and as an energy source for autotrophic ammonia oxidizers. However, the extent of cyanate availability and utilisation in terrestrial ecosystems and its role in biogeochemical cycles is poorly known. Here we analyse cyanate concentrations in soils across a range of soil types, land management practices and climates. Soil cyanate concentrations were three orders of magnitude lower than ammonium or nitrate. We determined cyanate consumption in a grassland and rice paddy soil using stable isotope tracer experiments. We find that cyanate turnover was rapid and dominated by biotic processes. We estimated that in-situ cyanate production rates were similar to those associated with urea fertilizer decomposition, a major source of cyanate in the environment. We provide evidence that cyanate is actively turned over in soils and represents a small but continuous nitrogen/energy source for soil microbes.
Highlights
Cyanate can serve as a nitrogen and/or carbon source for different microorganisms and as an energy source for autotrophic ammonia oxidizers
We found that urea was almost completely hydrolyzed at the end of the incubation (Fig. 4b), and that only a very small fraction (
Cyanate is more mobile in soil solution compared to ammonium[43], the availability of which is strongly limited in soils through adsorption, favoring the relative availability of cyanate-N in soil solution
Summary
Cyanate can serve as a nitrogen and/or carbon source for different microorganisms and as an energy source for autotrophic ammonia oxidizers. It has been shown that cyanate can serve as the sole N source for microorganisms that encode the enzyme cyanase ( known as cyanate hydrolase or cyanate lyase; EC 4.2.1.104)[8,12,13]. This enzyme catalyzes the decomposition of cyanate in a bicarbonatedependent reaction yielding carbamate, which spontaneously decarboxylates to ammonia and carbon dioxide[14]. This archaeon encodes a cyanase and was shown to effectively use cyanate as a source of
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