0000000000071191

AUTHOR

Najoi El Azhari

Estimation of the degrading genetic potential of soil bacterial communities: a new tool for evaluating and predicting soil contamination by organic micropollutants (i.e. pesticides, PAHs)

During the last two centuries, industrialisation has led to increasing contamination of the environment by xenobiotics, notably aromatic compounds (i.e. PAHs, pesticides). These widespread pollutants are a major threat affecting soil quality and human health. In this context, numerous policies have been drawn up notably in Europe, to monitor the threats of pollution to ecosystems and to detect and implement measures to counterbalance the damage. Nevertheless, the European Commission and scientific community are still confronted with a lack of appropriate tools to monitor biodiversity in relation to environmental processes affecting global warming and soil protection. This study proposes too…

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Detection and organization of atrazine-degrading genetic potential of seventeen bacterial isolates belonging to divergent taxa indicate a recent common origin of their catabolic functions

A collection of 17 atrazine-degrading bacteria isolated from soils was studied to determine the composition of the atrazine-degrading genetic potential (i.e. trzN, trzD and atz) and the presence of IS1071. The characterization of seven new atrazine-degrading bacteria revealed for the first time the trzN-atzBC gene composition in Gram-negative bacteria such as Sinorhizobium sp. or Polaromonas sp. Three main atrazine-degrading gene combinations (i) trzN– atzBC, (ii) atzABC– trzD and (iii) atzABCDEF were observed. The atz and trz genes were often located on plasmids, suggesting that plasmid conjugation could play an important role in their dispersion. In addition, the observation of these gene…

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Towards the identification and quantification of candidate metabolites of tebuconazole fungicide

International audience; Tebuconazole belongs to the family of triazole fungicides, used for crop protection and human health applications. In the environment, the dissipation of the parent molecule leads to the formation of metabolites that are of unknown identity or toxicity. In order to identify and determine the putative identity of those metabolites and their po- tential toxicity, a quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) approach is often used. Q-SAR approaches help to predict their toxicity by comparing them to a known database of molecules with known properties. All together the information on the candidate by-products may help to select relevant sub-set of metabolites for further quantifi…

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Molecular analysis of the catechol-degrading bacterial community in a coal wasteland heavily contaminated with PAHs

International audience; A PCR-based molecular tool was developed to estimate the diversity of the catechol-degrading bacterial community in a coal wasteland heavily contaminated with PAHS. A degenerate primer pair specific to catA sequences was designed by multiple alignment of known sequences coding a key intermediate of the β-ketoadiapate pathway degrading catechol, namely catechol 1,2-dioxygenase. The specificity of this primer pair was assessed in 21 pure strains by PCR and sequencing. Comparison of the 16S rDNA and catA phylogenies revealed an absence of congruence between these two genes. The primer set was able to amplify catA sequences in DNA extracts from an industrial soil highly …

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Use of PCAH as a molecular marker for estimating the diversity of the protocatechuate-degrading bacterial community in soil environment

Microorganisms degrading phenolic compounds play an important role in soil carbon cycling. The pcaH gene encoding a key ring-cleaving enzyme of the β -ketoadipate pathway was selected as a functional marker. Using a degenerate primer pair, pcaH fragments were cloned from two soils. The RFLP screening of 150 pcaH clones yielded 68 RFLP families. Comparison of 86 deduced amino acid sequences displayed 70 % identity to known PcaH sequences. Phylogenetic analysis results in two major groups mainly related to PcaH sequences from Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria phyla. This gene constitutes a suitable molecular marker to study the diversity of this functional group.

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Discrimination génétique de clones de Pinot Noir et de Chardonnay par marquage microsatellite

National audience; Face aux difficultés d’améliorer la traçabilité des clones, nous avons exploré la possibilité d’utiliser des marqueurs neutres tels que les marqueurs microsatellites pour discriminer des clones de vigne. Les marqueurs microsatellites ont été choisis pour leurs caractères mono-locus, co-dominants et faciles à développer. Il sont ainsi permis de caractériser une collection de clones Pinot Noir et de Chardonnay. Cette collection de 82 clones est composée d’un clone de Gamay constituant la référence extérieure définissant l’enracinement de l’arbre phylogénétique, 48 clones de Pinot Noir et 33 clones de Chardonnay. Cette collection est constituée de clones agrées, de clones is…

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Studies on the response of soil microflora to the application of the fungicide fenhexamid

The aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of the fungicide fenhexamid (FEX) on the genetic structure of soil bacterial communities using the Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis molecular technique. Using real-time PCR, we also tried to quantify the pcaH sequences which encode the dioxygenases involved in the degradation process of a variety of aromatic compounds. Soil taken from a vineyard in the Etna Park (Sicily, Italy) was treated with FEX in the ratio 2 µg g-1 soil every 7 days, the process being repeated four times. The analyses were carried out before treatment and 7 days after each further application of FEX. At the same time, the degradation rate was evaluated. The use of FEX…

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pcaH, a molecular marker for estimating the diversity of the protocatechuate-degrading bacterial community in the soil environment

Microorganisms degrading phenolic compounds play an important role in soil carbon cycling as well as in pesticide degradation. The pcaH gene encoding a key ring-cleaving enzyme of the -ketoadipate pathway was selected as a functional marker. Using a degenerate primer pair, pcaH fragments were cloned from two agricultural soils. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) screening of 150 pcaH clones yielded 68 RFLP families. Comparison of 86 deduced amino acid sequences displayed 70% identity to known PcaH sequences. Phylogenetic analysis results in two major groups mainly related to PcaH sequences from Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria phyla. This confirms that the developed primer pai…

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Long-term impact of 19 years' farmyard manure or sewage sludge application on the structure, diversity and density of the protocatechuate-degrading bacterial community

International audience; Impact of long-term biosolids application on soil-living micro-organisms key players of ecosystemic services is scarcely reported. Here, the impact of the 19 year-long application of farmyard manure (FM) and sewage sludge (SS) organic fertilisation regimes on the protocatechuate-degrading bacterial (pca) community was estimated by comparison to a mineral fertilisation regime (U). The structure, diversity and density of the pca community were determined using pcaH, a gene encoding the protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase. Ten years after the last application, the structure of the pca community in soils amended with 55100 (100 t/ha/2 years) and to a lesser extent with FM (1…

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