Genetic potential, diversity and activity of an atrazine-degrading community enriched from a herbicide factory effluent

Aims:  To characterize an atrazine-degrading bacterial community enriched from the wastewater of a herbicide factory. Methods and Results:  The community mineralized 81·4 ± 1·9% of [14C-ring]atrazine and 31·0 ± 1·8% of [14C-ethyl]atrazine within 6 days of batch cultivation in mineral salts medium containing atrazine as the sole nitrogen source. Degradation activity of the community towards different chloro- and methylthio-substituted s-triazine compounds was also demonstrated. Restriction analysis of amplified 16S rDNA revealed high diversity of bacterial populations forming the community, with Pseudomonas species dominating in the clone library. Atrazine-degrading genetic potential of the …