Long lasting non-cellular reactions in sterilized soils recapitulate most of the intermediates of the Krebs cycle
Abstract
The oxidation of organic matter to CO2 in soils, i.e. soil respiration, was traditionally considered to be a strictly intracellular biological process. However, studies over the past decade have revealed that non-cellular organic matter mineralisation is ubiquitous in soils and contributes significantly to CO2 emissions from soils. Nevertheless, the chemical pathways involved and the metabolite intermediates produced by these non-cellular reactions remain unknown. In the present study, we investigated the long-term fate (>6 months) of organic substrates supplied to sterilized soils. Our results demonstrate that, when incubated with [U–13C] -glucose and -citrate, a sterilized soil matrix can generate Krebs cycle intermediates, alongside by-products such as acetate and formate. These findings support the hypothesis that non-cellular processes in soil can carry out network reactions that gradually decompose thermodynamically stable organic compounds into various metabolites that can more easily undergo decarboxylation, similar to cellular metabolism.
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BibTeX
@article{bouquet2026long,
title = {{Long lasting non-cellular reactions in sterilized soils recapitulate most of the intermediates of the Krebs cycle}},
author = {Clémentin Bouquet and Mounir Traïkia and Fanny Perrière and Benoit Kéraval and Gaël Alvarez and Loïc Louis and Martin Leremboure and Guillaume Voyard and Sébastien Fontaine and Anne-Catherine Lehours},
journal = {Soil Biology and Biochemistry},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110228},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05732219v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Long lasting non-cellular reactions in sterilized soils recapitulate most of the intermediates of the Krebs cycle
AU - Clémentin Bouquet
AU - Mounir Traïkia
AU - Fanny Perrière
AU - Benoit Kéraval
AU - Gaël Alvarez
AU - Loïc Louis
AU - Martin Leremboure
AU - Guillaume Voyard
AU - Sébastien Fontaine
AU - Anne-Catherine Lehours
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
JO - Soil Biology and Biochemistry
DO - 10.1016/j.soilbio.2026.110228
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05732219v1
AB - The oxidation of organic matter to CO2 in soils, i.e. soil respiration, was traditionally considered to be a strictly intracellular biological process. However, studies over the past decade have revealed that non-cellular organic matter mineralisation is ubiquitous in soils and contributes significantly to CO2 emissions from soils. Nevertheless, the chemical pathways involved and the metabolite intermediates produced by these non-cellular reactions remain unknown. In the present study, we investigated the long-term fate (>6 months) of organic substrates supplied to sterilized soils. Our results demonstrate that, when incubated with [U–13C] -glucose and -citrate, a sterilized soil matrix can generate Krebs cycle intermediates, alongside by-products such as acetate and formate. These findings support the hypothesis that non-cellular processes in soil can carry out network reactions that gradually decompose thermodynamically stable organic compounds into various metabolites that can more easily undergo decarboxylation, similar to cellular metabolism.
SN - 0038-0717
ER -