Amino Acids are the building blocks of life and contain organic nitrogen, which is not readily seen on your soil test. By understanding the role of amino acids and how they influence nitrogen cycles, you can enhance your soil’s health and boost nitrogen availability for plants.
The Importance of Amino Acids and Organic Nitrogen in Plant Growth
Nitrogen is essential for the formation of amino acids, the building blocks of life. Accessing nitrogen in its organic form is crucial for efficient uptake by plants, allowing them to conserve energy for cell formation, growth, and overall health. This also improves their resilience to environmental challenges. Worm-based products can enhance plants’ nitrogen uptake due to their amino acid content. NutriSoil Biological Solution or Castings have a complex diversity of amino acids and microbes.
Key Points
- Amino acids are the building blocks of life.
- Nitrogen is needed to form every amino acid.
- Amino acids bond together to form proteins, which carry out essential plant activities.
- Amino acids are an organic form of nitrogen and are easily taken up by plants.
- NutriSoil products contain amino acids and bacteria that make nitrogen available to plants.
What are amino acids?
Amino acids are organic molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms. The nitrogen and hydrogen combine to form an amine group, while the carbon and oxygen combine to form a carboxyl group. Each amino acid has a specific and unique side chain, known as an alkyl group, that binds to the carbon atom.
Amino acid structure – The Role and Importance of Amino Acids within Plants: A Review
The Role and Importance of Amino Acids in Plants
Peptide bonds join amino acids to form DNA, RNA, and proteins. Each protein has a unique arrangement of amino acids and is involved in nearly every cellular process, including respiration, photosynthesis, nutrient transport, and stress tolerance. There are about 20 different amino acids in nature, which combine to form the billions of proteins necessary for plant functions.
Why is Organic Nitrogen so important?
Organic nitrogen is a component of all amino acids, making access to available nitrogen critical for amino acid and protein formation. Although nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere (78% of the air we breathe), it is held together by very stable bonds. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are required to break these bonds and convert nitrogen into forms usable by plants. Without nitrogen, plants cannot form DNA, RNA, or proteins, making nitrogen access a challenging but essential process.
How do plants access nitrogen?
Plants can access nitrogen in two forms: organic nitrogen (amino acids), which can be taken up directly by the plant and inorganic nitrogen (ammonia/ammonium or nitrate), which can be supplied synthetically (e.g., urea, MAP, DAP) or through biological processes like nitrogen fixation and nitrification, which require soil bacteria. Additionally, urea contained in animal urine is a source of nitrogen in grazing systems.
Amino Acid forms of Nitrogen are the preferred Nitrogen to be taken up by plants because they require less energy for uptake. Plants can access nitrogen from amino acids produced when soil microbes decompose organic matter, they can directly absorb amino acids through their leaves and roots, and they can also uptake whole microbes, which contain organic nitrogen.
Boosting Nitrogen Uptake Efficiency
When plants take up inorganic forms of nitrogen, they expend energy converting it into amino acids. Organic nitrogen uptake requires less energy, as plants do not need to

convert it back into amino acids.
When plants are photosynthesising efficiently, they convert amino acids into functional proteins, essential for healthy plants that are more resilient and can defend themselves from attacks by pests and diseases.
Improving organic nitrogen availability
It is possible to enhance nitrogen availability for plants in biologically active soils with microbes and organic matter that can convert organic material into amino acids. Soils containing bacteria involved in the nitrogen cycle are crucial for plant nitrogen availability. Plants can also indigest whole microbes, which provide various nutrients, including nitrogen.
NutriSoil Biological Solution and Castings are worm-based products containing a complex diversity of amino acids and microbes, including the bacteria involved in the nitrogen cycle. Laboratory testing of NutriSoil products has demonstrated this diversity.
Applying NutriSoil products helps farmers increase plant nitrogen uptake while improving soil biological diversity. Incorporating NutriSoil into soil health improvement processes is a great step towards healthier, more resilient plants.