DIN Standards Committee Water Practice
DIN CEN ISO/TS 29843-1
; DIN SPEC 91201-1:2014-12
Soil quality - Determination of soil microbial diversity - Part 1: Method by phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) and phospholipid ether lipids (PLEL) analysis (ISO/TS 29843-1:2010); German version CEN ISO/TS 29843-1:2014
Bodenbeschaffenheit - Bestimmung der Diversität von Bodenmikroorganismen - Teil 1: Verfahren mittels Phospholipidfettsäure(PLFA)-Analyse und Phospholipidetherlipid(PLEL)-Analyse (ISO/TS 29843-1:2010); Deutsche Fassung CEN ISO/TS 29843-1:2014
Procedure
VN
Overview
This part of ISO/TS 29843 defines an extended method for the extraction and determination of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) and phospholipid ether lipids (PLEL) from soils. ISO/TS 29843-2 describes a simple procedure for the extraction of PLFA from soils only. Phospholipids are essential components of membranes of all living cells, and their fatty acids (PLFA: phospholipid fatty acids) or ether-bound isoprenoid side chains (PLEL: phospholipid ether lipids) enable taxonomic differentiation within complex microbial communities. This approach is currently a common method in soil ecology and serves as a phenotypic and thus complementary instrument to genotypic (= molecular genetic) approaches for the determination of microbial diversity. There are different methods for determining fatty acids in soil. These methodologies represent different degrees of complexity and provide different degrees of resolution in the description of microbial communities in soil. The determination of the total contents of PLFA and PLEL provides a quantitative measure of the viable biomass of soil: microorganisms from all three areas of the biosphere (bacteria, fungi and archaebacteria). Viable microorganisms have an intact membrane containing phospholipids. Within minutes or hours after cell death, cellular enzymes lead to the hydrolysis and release of phosphate groups. In addition to taxonomic descriptions, the PLFA method allows the determination of physiological changes within microorganism communities. The committee responsible for this document is NA 119-01-02-04 UA "Biologische Verfahren" ("Biological Processes") at DIN.
Document: references other documents
Document: referenced in other documents
Responsible national committee
NA 119-01-02-04 UA - Biological methods
Responsible european committee
CEN/TC 444/WG 4 - Biological characterization