Growth rate of bacteria is affected by soil texture and extraction procedure

Effects of soil texture on the extraction efficiency of bacteria from soils and on biosynthetic activity of the extracted bacteria were studied. Bacterial extracts were prepared from three soils of different texture by homogenization (ultrasonication and mixing) or by homogenization–centrifugation at different speeds. Bacterial biosynthetic activity was estimated using thymidine and leucine incorporation techniques. In each step of the extraction procedure, a higher extractability of bacteria was obtained in finer soils than in coarse soil. Also cell-specific growth rates of bacteria were higher in the finer soils than in the coarse soil. However, in all soils, the extracted bacteria always had significantly lower cell-specific thymidine and leucine incorporation rates than the bacteria in soil slurries and thus did not represent so well the bacterial growth in the original soils. The total declines in cell-specific incorporation rates caused by the extraction were larger in fine soil (96–98%) than in coarse soil (90%), but bacteria in the coarse soil were more responsive to only minor intervention. The homogenization–centrifugation method eliminated the differences in bacterial biosynthesis found when working with soil slurries. Therefore, we recommend using of soil slurries or, optionally, soil suspensions to compare bacterial biosynthetic activity among soils of different textures.