The effect of herbicides on soil microorganisms. I. The effect of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid on some phases of the nitrogen metabolism of Bacillus cereus.

Although some work has been done on the effect of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) on the numbers and kinds of organisms of the soil (Smith, Dawson and Wenzel, 1945; Hoover and Colmer, 1953), on respiration of certain soil organisms (Magee, 1954), and on the effect of this herbicide on certain processes of the soil (Newman, 1947; Jones, 1948; Carlyle and Thorpe, 1947; and Payne and Fults, 1947), no work seems to have been done on the effect of this agent on the group of complex reactions which result when nitrogenous organic substances are the substrates for microorganisms. This report concerns the effect of 2,4-D upon the activities of one of the common sporeforming rods, Bacillus cereus, in the decomposition of gelatin and an amino acid substrate.