Table 1.

Main enzymes and their functions in grasslands.

Enzyme	Reaction	Compounds obtained from the reaction	Main functions in grassland ecosystems	References
β-glucosidase	Hydrolyzes glycosides and oligosaccharides	Glucose	Sustains soil life through the provision of C and energy sources	(Wang et al., 2019a; Chuan et al., 2020; Du et al., 2020; Li Q. et al., 2021; Saha et al., 2021; Hu et al., 2022; Li N. et al., 2022)
Invertase	Catalyzes the process of decomposing sucrose	Fructose and glucose	Sustains soil life through the provision of C and energy sources	(Veriato Coura et al., 2020; Liao et al., 2023; Liu et al., 2023; Pan et al., 2023)
Catalase	Decomposes hydrogen peroxide	Water and oxygen	Protect living cells from oxidative damage	(Hu et al., 2022; Li J. et al., 2022; Li M. et al., 2022)
Dehydrogenases	Catalyzes numerous oxidation-reduction reactions	Various, often aldehydes and protons	Allows various biochemical reactions	(Marcos et al., 2020; Kaur, 2021; Saha et al., 2021; Hu et al., 2022; Li N. et al., 2022)
Amylase	Hydrolyses starch	Sugars	Sustains soil life through the provision of C and energy sources	(Veriato Coura et al., 2020; Wang H. Y. et al., 2020; Krishnan et al., 2022; Ozcan et al., 2022)
Urease	Hydrolyses urea	Ammonia and carbon dioxide	Provides plant available N	(Wang C. et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2021; Ekwunife et al., 2022)
Phosphatase	Hydrolyses phosphor-ester bonds	Phosphate ion	Provides plant available P	(Yang et al., 2016; Liao et al., 2020; Wahdan et al., 2021; Xie et al., 2021)
Sulfatase	Hydrolyses sulfate-ester bonds	Sulfate ion	Provides plant available S	(Tscherko et al., 2004; dos Santos et al., 2022)
Cellulases	Hydrolyses 1,4-beta-glucosidic linkages	Mono- and oligo-saccharides	Sustains soil life through the provision of C and energy sources	(Iqbal et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2022)
Chitinase	Hydrolyzes the chitin polymers of arthropods’ exoskeleton and fungal cell wall	Low molecular weights multimers	Triggers plant defense and first step in the production of mineral N and C from chitin	(Bazghaleh et al., 2016; Khan et al., 2019; Sousa et al., 2019; Kim et al., 2022; Muñoz et al., 2022)