Glomalin Is a Chemical and Biological Blind Alley.

Since its announcement in 1996 material known as glomalin has attracted much attention. It is believed to be produced by arbuscular mycorrhiza and involved in soil aggregation. Because it can be easily extracted and estimated it is popular in many research areas including those estimating soil C and N stocks and managing C sequestration.From simple experiments together with a careful re-examination of the literature it is suggested that pure glomalin has not yet been obtained.Insufficient biochemical analyses on crude glomalin prepared and estimated using inadequately evaluated or inappropriate procedures suggest that the importance attributed to glomalin has been grossly overstated.It is suggested that before glomalin becomes accepted or embedded in soil biochemistry and fertility it is isolated, under physiologically acceptable conditions, fully characterised and previous claims for its origin, detection and efficacy re-examined.