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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Isolation and characterisation of a bacterial strain degrading the herbicide sulcotrione from an agricultural soil

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BACKGROUND: The dissipation kinetics of the herbicide sulcotrione sprayed 4 times on a French soil was studied using a laboratory microcosm approach. An advanced cultivation-based method was then used to isolate the bacteria responsible for biotransformation of sulcotrione. Chromatographic methods were employed as complementary tools to define its metabolic pathway. RESULTS: Soil microflora was able quickly to biotransform the herbicide (DT50 ≈ 8 days). 2-Chloro-4-mesylbenzoic acid, one of its main metabolites, was clearly detected. However, no accelerated biodegradation process was observed. Eight pure sulcotrione-resistant strains were isolated, but only one (1OP) was capable of degrading this herbicide with a relatively high efficiency and to use it as a sole source of carbon and energy. In parallel, another sulcotrione-resistant strain (1TRANS) was shown to be incapable of degrading the herbicide. Amplified ribosomal restriction analysis (ARDRA) and repetitive extragenic palendromic PCR genomic (REP-PCR) fingerprinting of strains 1OP and 1TRANS gave indistinguishable profiles. CONCLUSION: Sequencing and aligning analysis of 16S rDNA genes of each pure strain revealed identical sequences and a close phylogenetic relationship (99% sequence identity) to Pseudomonas putida. Such physiological and genetic properties of 1OP to metabolise sulcotrione were probably governed by mobile genetic elements in the genome of the bacteria. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry