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Purines and Pyrimidines in Soils and Humic Substances¹

ABSTRACT

Purines and pyrimidines were determined by ion-exclusion chromatography in soils and humic substances of widely differing origins. Concentrations of purines + pyrimidines ranged from 20.9 to 137.7 µg per g of dry soils, from 210.8 to 810.0 µg per g of dry, ash-free humic acids, and from 294.3 to 1086.6 µg per g of dry, ash-free fulvic acids. Quantitatively the distribution in soils was as follows: guanine > cytosine > adenine > thymine > uracil. Humic acids were richer in guanine and adenine but poorer in cytosine, thymine and uracil than were fulvic acids. Guanine + cytosine over adenine + thymine ratios for soils and humic substances averaged > 2 and methyl cytosine was not detected, suggesting a microbial DNA origin for the nucleic acid bases extracted. The proportion of total N in purines + pyrimidines was inversely proportional to the total N content. An average 3.3% of the total N in the inorganic soils but only 0.3% of the total N in the organic soils analyzed were found to occur in nucleic acid bases.

¹ Contribution no. 1063 from Chemistry and Biology Research Institute, Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Canada KIA 0C6.

² Visiting scientist from the C.E.P.E. Louis Emberger, Department d'Ecologie du Sol, C.N.R.S., B.P. 5051, 34033 Montpellier, France, and Principal Research Scientist, respectively.

Received for publication December 19, 1978. Accepted for publication May 18, 1979.

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