This study aims to investigate the characteristics of soil amino sugar accumulation along different altitudinal gradients in arid mountainous regions and elucidate the contributions of amino sugars to the soil organic carbon pool and the factors influencing them. The research focuses on the soils of the western slope of Helan Mountain, ranging from 1848 to 2940 meters in altitude. The soil collected at different elevations (1848-2940 m) on the west slope of Helan Moutain in August 2021 was used as the research object. The analysis includes the examination of soil physicochemical properties, microbial community structure, amino sugar content, variations in the contribution of amino sugars to soil organic carbon, and the driving factors behind these changes. The results indicate significant differences in soil physicochemical properties with increasing altitudes. Soil moisture content, organic carbon, and total nitrogen show an increasing trend, while pH and bulk density exhibit a decreasing trend, and total phosphorus does not show a consistent pattern of change. Along the altitudinal gradient, the contents of soil fungi, bacteria, actinomycetes, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) initially increase and then decrease, with higher microbial PLFAs contents observed in the mid-altitude range (2110-2360 m). The total amino sugar content and individual amino sugar monomers(Glucosamine, Galactosamine, Muramic acid, and Mannosamine) exhibit continuous increase and a decrease followed by an increase, respectively, along the altitudinal gradient. The highest altitude corresponds to the peaks in both total amino sugar content and individual amino sugar monomer content. In the mid-altitude range, the contribution of fungal and bacterial residue carbon to soil organic carbon is lower compared to the low-altitude range (1848-1910 m) and the high-altitude range (2707-2940 m). Furthermore, fungal residue carbon plays a dominant role in the contribution to soil organic carbon at different altitudinal gradients. Variance decomposition results reveal that soil physicochemical properties and microbial PLFAs contents jointly explain 55.2% of the variation in soil amino sugar content and its contribution to organic carbon. Among these factors, soil physicochemical properties explain 52.9% of the variation, while microbial PLFAs contents explain 26.9% of the variation. Redundancy analysis confirms that soil physicochemical properties are the primary factors influencing amino sugar content and its contribution to soil organic carbon. This study sheds light on the microbial-driven mechanisms of soil organic carbon storage and transformation on the western slope of Helan Mountain, providing a theoretical basis for further research on the contribution of microbial residues to soil organic carbon in arid mountainous regions.