Advances in humeomics: Enhanced structural identification of humic molecules after size fractionation of a soil humic acid

We size fractionated a soil humic acid (HA) by preparative high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) and evaluated the analytical capacity of humeomics to isolate and identify humic molecular components in the separated size-fractions. HA and its three size-fractions were chemically fractionated to extract non-covalently bound organosoluble compounds (ORG1), weakly ester-bound organosoluble (ORG2) and hydrosoluble constituents (AQU2), strongly ester-bound organosoluble components (ORG3), and final unextractable residues (RES4). According to their solubility, the extracts were characterized by either GC–MS or on-line thermochemolysis/GC–MS techniques. The humeomic sequence showed that the analytical yields of identified compounds in either ORG or AQU extracts of size-fractions were invariably larger than for the unfractionated HA. This was attributed to a weaker conformational stability of humic suprastructures obtained by HPSEC fractionation, thereby enabling an improved separation and identification of single humic molecules. In line with the supramolecular understanding of humic substances, we found that hydrophobic compounds were mainly distributed in the largest size-fraction, while hydrophilic components were eluted in the smallest size-fraction. Furthermore, compounds with linear chains or stackable aromatic rings associated in regular structures were more abundant in the former fraction, whereas irregularly shaped compounds, that hindered association in larger size, were mostly found in the latter fraction. Thus the structural characteristics of single humic molecules determined their mutual association in humic suprastructures, as well as their conformational strength and shape. The lack of de novo synthesized macropolymers in the unfractionated soil humic matter was confirmed by the absence of RES4 fractions in the separated size-fractions. Our results indicate that humeomics capacity to reveal the complex molecular composition of humic suprastructures was significantly improved by subjecting humic matter to a preliminary HPSEC fractionation.

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► Humeomics applied to size-fractions of a humic material separated by HPSEC.
► Enhanced analytical yield and detection of single humic molecules.
► Humeomics increased for weaker conformational stability of humic associations.
► Role played by single molecules in stabilizing humic supramolecular associations.
► Realistic structure–activity relationship.