Glomalin
Glomalin is a soil glue produced by mycorrhizal fungi which plays an essential role in the formation and maintenance of soil through aggregation, facilitates the transfer of nutrients and water through fungal hyphae and soil ecosystems, and makes up a third of all soil organic carbon.
Definition
Historical
The relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots is possibly the oldest and most abundant plant-microbe association on earth.[1] The production of glomalin would have played an essential role in the evolutionary success of these symbiotic associations and the survival of life on land, as an essential ingredient in the aggregation of soil.
Glomalin was isolated in 1996 by Sara F. Wright, a scientist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service. According to Wright, Glomalin eluded scientific detection for so long because of its toughness. To dislodge and isolate glomalin for study requires a bath in citrate combined with heating at 250°F for at least an hour.[2]
Technical
Glomalin is a glycoprotein produced abundantly on hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil and in roots. The name comes from Glomerales, an order of fungi.
Glomalin is both the toughest and most ubiquitous soil glue, appearing in virtually all soil samples around the world.[3]