The process of Nitrogen being released from Alanine, oxidized by soil microbes, absorbed by a root, and reduced and assimilated into aspartic acid is known as the Nitrogen Cycle. This cycle is necessary because there is a shortage of nitrogen in the soil; therefore, most of the soil nitrogen is obtained from dead organic materials such as Amino Acids.
The first step in this process is nitrogen being released from the amino acid. This process is known as ammonification. Alanine is used as an organic source because it is found in humus, which is dead organic matter. The Alanine is decomposed into simpler compounds by soil-dwelling saprophytic bacteria and different fungi. They incorporate the nitrogen from amino acids and proteins and release the excess nitrogen in the form of ammonium ions.
The next part of this cycle is the oxidation of ammonium, also called nitrification. This step takes the nitrogen compound, in this case ammonia, and oxidizes it into nitrite and nitrate.......

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Title: Nitrogen Cycle
Approximate Word Count: 523
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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