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Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B (Biomedicine & Biotechnology)  2013, Vol. 14 Issue (12): 1162-1172    DOI: 10.1631/jzus.B1300001
Articles     
Atrazine biodegradation efficiency, metabolite detection, and trzD gene expression by enrichment bacterial cultures from agricultural soil
Robinson David Jebakumar Solomon, Amit Kumar, Velayudhan Satheeja Santhi
Department of Molecular Microbiology, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai 625021, Tamil Nadu, India
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Abstract  Atrazine is a selective herbicide used in agricultural fields to control the emergence of broadleaf and grassy weeds. The persistence of this herbicide is influenced by the metabolic action of habituated native microorganisms. This study provides information on the occurrence of atrazine mineralizing bacterial strains with faster metabolizing ability. The enrichment cultures were tested for the biodegradation of atrazine by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry. Nine cultures JS01.Deg01 to JS09.Deg01 were identified as the degrader of atrazine in the enrichment culture. The three isolates JS04.Deg01, JS07.Deg01, and JS08.Deg01 were identified as efficient atrazine metabolizers. Isolates JS04.Deg01 and JS07.Deg01 produced hydroxyatrazine (HA) N-isopropylammelide and cyanuric acid by dealkylation reaction. The isolate JS08.Deg01 generated deethylatrazine (DEA), deisopropylatrazine (DIA), and cyanuric acid by N-dealkylation in the upper degradation pathway and later it incorporated cyanuric acid in their biomass by the lower degradation pathway. The optimum pH for degrading atrazine by JS08.Deg01 was 7.0 and 16S rDNA phylogenetic typing identified it as Enterobacter cloacae strain JS08.Deg01. The highest atrazine mineralization was observed in case of isolate JS08.Deg01, where an ample amount of trzD mRNA was quantified at 72 h of incubation with atrazine. Atrazine bioremediating isolate E. cloacae strain JS08.Deg01 could be the better environmental remediator of agricultural soils and the crop fields contaminated with atrazine could be the source of the efficient biodegrading microbial strains for the environmental cleanup process.

Key wordsAtrazine      Biodegradation      Enterobacter cloacae      Deethylatrazine      Cyanuric acid      trzD gene     
Received: 01 January 2013      Published: 03 December 2013
CLC:  X172  
Cite this article:

Robinson David Jebakumar Solomon, Amit Kumar, Velayudhan Satheeja Santhi. Atrazine biodegradation efficiency, metabolite detection, and trzD gene expression by enrichment bacterial cultures from agricultural soil. Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B (Biomedicine & Biotechnology), 2013, 14(12): 1162-1172.

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http://www.zjujournals.com/xueshu/zjus-b/10.1631/jzus.B1300001     OR     http://www.zjujournals.com/xueshu/zjus-b/Y2013/V14/I12/1162

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