Occurrence of bound muramic acid and alpha, epsilon-diaminopimelic acid in soil and comparison of their contents with bacterial biomass.

The occurrence of bound muramic and alpha, epsilon-diaminopimelic acids in soil, both within and without the bacterial biomass has been studied. The obtained results show that both compounds occur in this environment mainly extracellularly; they also occur in humic acids, into which they are easily incorporated from dead bacterial cells in the processes of humus synthesis and then released during its mineralization.