Fertilizer Nitrogen Sources, Crop Response to Urea and Urea Pyrolysis Products

Terman, G. L.; DeMent, J. D.; Hunt, C. M.; Cope, Jonathan; Ensminger, L. E.

doi:10.1021/jf60132a015

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…In contrast to the metabolism of atrazine discussed above, the data are consistent with bacteria having evolved the enzymes to liberate ammonia from cyanuric acid long before industrial s-triazine production started 150 years ago (12,21,36,(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51). Sequence divergence, broad phylogenetic distribution, and the fixation of the cyanuric acid degradation genes on chromosomes and, in some cases, within operons, all point to an ancient origin of the gene function (29, 52-54).…”

Section: Cyanuric Acid Hydrolase Genes and Enzymessupporting

confidence: 65%

Ancient Evolution and Recent Evolution Converge for the Biodegradation of Cyanuric Acid and Related Triazines

Seffernick

Wackett

2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Cyanuric acid was likely present on prebiotic Earth, may have been a component of early genetic materials, and is synthesized industrially today on a scale of more than one hundred million pounds per year in the United States. In light of this, it is not surprising that some bacteria and fungi have a metabolic pathway that sequentially hydrolyzes cyanuric acid and its metabolites to release the nitrogen atoms as ammonia to support growth. The initial reaction that opens the s-triazine ring is catalyzed by the unusual enzyme cyanuric acid hydrolase. This enzyme is in a rare protein family that consists of only cyanuric acid hydrolase (CAH) and barbiturase, with barbiturase participating in pyrimidine catabolism by some actinobacterial species. The X-ray structures of two cyanuric acid hydrolase proteins show that this family has a unique protein fold. Phylogenetic, bioinformatic, enzymological, and genetic studies are consistent with the idea that CAH has an ancient protein fold that was rare in microbial populations but is currently becoming more widespread in microbial populations in the wake of anthropogenic synthesis of cyanuric acid and other s-triazine compounds that are metabolized via a cyanuric acid intermediate. The need for the removal of cyanuric acid from swimming pools and spas, where it is used as a disinfectant stabilizer, can potentially be met using an enzyme filtration system. A stable thermophilic cyanuric acid hydrolase from Moorella thermoacetica is being tested for this purpose. Rings happen. The spontaneous (abiotic) formation of chemicals, especially aromatic rings, is prominent in nature and complements the formation of chemical compounds by biosynthesis (natural products) and human synthesis (anthropogenic products). The most well-known examples of abiotic ring formation are the alicyclic, benzenoid, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon rings found in petroleum that form in the earth's subsurface at high pressure and temperatures of Ͼ200°C (1). In addition to petroleum hydrocarbons, abiotic chemical reactions produce a wide array of oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen heterocyclic rings.Heterocyclic rings are known to also form spontaneously (1). At 25°C and 1 atm pressure, isocyanic acid spontaneously cyclizes to form a mixture of cyanuric acid and cyamelide (2). Cyamelide is not very stable, but the partially aromatic cyanuric acid ring is highly resistant to abiotic hydrolysis or other ring opening reactions. Given that isocyanic acid is widespread in the universe, where it is commonly found in gas clouds, meteors, and comets (3), the highly stable cyanuric acid is plausibly an important sink of organic carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in early planetary systems. Recent studies investigating RNA as an early genetic code found that cyanuric acid and triaminopyrimidine self-assemble in water to create aggregates resembling contemporary nucleic acid base pairs. Triaminopyrimidine forms nucleosides with ribose, and upon heating, the cyanuric acid mixture forms gene-length polymers that have been ter...

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Section: Cyanuric Acid Hydrolase Genes and Enzymessupporting

confidence: 65%

Ancient Evolution and Recent Evolution Converge for the Biodegradation of Cyanuric Acid and Related Triazines

Seffernick

Wackett

2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

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“…However, melamine was less effective than sodium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, urea, and calcium cyanamide. The nitrogen from melamine was the least available of any nitrogenous fertilizer examined for improving the yields of corn and Bermuda grass (Terman et al 1964). Wehner and Martin (1989) evaluated melamine in combination with urea as a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer for lawn care.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodegradation of melamine and its hydroxy derivatives by a bacterial consortium containing a novel Nocardioides species

Takagi

Fujii

Yamazaki

et al. 2011

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol

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Melamine has recently been recognized as a food contaminant with adverse human health effects. Melamine contamination in some crops arises from soil and water pollution from various causes. To remove melamine from the polluted environment, a novel bacterium, Nocardioides sp. strain ATD6, capable of degrading melamine was enriched and isolated from a paddy soil sample. The enrichment culture was performed by the soil-charcoal perfusion method in the presence of triazine-degrading bacteria previously obtained. Strain ATD6 degraded melamine and accumulated cyanuric acid and ammonium, via the intermediates ammeline and ammelide. No gene known to encode for triazine-degrading enzymes was detected in strain ATD6. A mixed culture of strain ATD6 and a simazine-degrading Methyloversatilis sp. strain CDB21 completely degraded melamine, but the degradation rate of cyanuric acid was slow. The degradation of melamine and its catabolites by the mixed culture was greatly enhanced by including Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain CSB1 in the inoculum and adding ethanol to the culture medium. The melamine-degrading consortium consisting of strains ATD6, CDB21, and CSB1 appears to be potentially safer than other known melamine-degrading bacteria for the bioremediation of farmland and other contaminated sites, as no known pathogens were included in the consortium.

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“…They also isolated, but then lost, a bacterium which grew vigorously in a glucose-cyanurate medium. Terman et al (13) showed that nitrogen from cyanuric acid was available for crop growth. Clark et al (K. G. Clark, J. Y. Yee, and T. G. Lamont, Abstr. 132nd Meet.…”

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confidence: 99%

Biodegradation of Cyanuric Acid

Saldick

1974

Applied Microbiology

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Cyanuric acid biodegrades readily under a wide variety of natural conditions, and particularly well in systems of either low or zero dissolved-oxygen level, such as anaerobic activated sludge and sewage, soils, muds, and muddy streams and river waters, as well as ordinary aerated activated sludge systems with typically low (1 to 3 ppm) dissolved-oxygen levels. Degradation also proceeds in 3.5% sodium chloride solution. Consequently, there are degradation pathways widely available for breaking down cyanuric acid discharged in domestic effluents. The overall degradation reaction is merely a hydrolysis; CO and ammonia are the initial hydrolytic breakdown products. Since no net oxidation occurs during this breakdown, biodegradation of cyanuric acid exerts no primary biological oxygen demand. However, eventual nitrification of the ammonia released will exert its usual biological oxygen demand.

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Fertilizer Nitrogen Sources, Crop Response to Urea and Urea Pyrolysis Products

Cited by 17 publications

References 1 publication

Ancient Evolution and Recent Evolution Converge for the Biodegradation of Cyanuric Acid and Related Triazines

Ancient Evolution and Recent Evolution Converge for the Biodegradation of Cyanuric Acid and Related Triazines

Biodegradation of melamine and its hydroxy derivatives by a bacterial consortium containing a novel Nocardioides species

Biodegradation of Cyanuric Acid

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