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Concept
Glomalin
Summary
Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced abundantly on hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in soil and in roots. Glomalin was discovered in 1996 by Sara F. Wright, a scientist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The name comes from Glomerales, an order of fungi. Most AM fungi are of the division Glomeromycota. An elusive substance, it is mostly known from its glue-like effect on soil and has not yet been isolated.
The specific protein glomalin has not yet been isolated and described. What has been described is an extraction process involving heat and citrate, producing a mixture containing a substance that is reactive to a monoclonal antibody Mab32B11 raised against crushed AM fungi spores. The substance is then provisionally named "glomalin". As many laboratories do not have the equipment to perform an antibody-based isolation (ELISA), a crude mixture called glomalin-related soil proteins (GRSP) is used to refer to the extract portion reactive to the Bradford protein assay. There is significant confusion between the ideal glomalin protein, the antibody-reactive extract portion termed "glomalin", and GRSP.
"Glomalin" was first identified by the Mab32B11 assay in 1987. It eluded extraction until 1996 because, according to its discoverer Sarah F. Wright, "It requires an unusual effort to dislodge glomalin for study: a bath in citrate combined with heating at 250 °F (121 °C) for at least an hour.... No other soil glue found to date required anything as drastic as this." However, using advanced analytical methods in 2010, the citrate-heating extraction procedure for GRSP was proven to co-extract humic substances, so it is still not clear if this "glue effect" comes from glomalin or the other substances that are co-extracted using that method.
Based on her extraction, Wright thinks the "glomalin molecule is a clump of small glycoproteins with iron and other ions attached... glomalin contains from 1 to 9% tightly bound iron.... We've seen glomalin on the outside of hyphae, and we believe this is how the hyphae seal themselves so they can carry water and nutrients.
Official source
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