Open AccessDetection and organization of atrazine‐degrading genetic potential of seventeen bacterial isolates belonging to divergent taxa indicate a recent common origin of their catabolic functions
Author(s) -
Devers Marion,
Azhari Najoi El,
Kolic NikolinaUdikovic,
MartinLaurent Fabrice
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2007.00792.x
Subject(s) - atrazine , plasmid , bacteria , biology , gene , genetics , sinorhizobium , dna , microbiology and biotechnology , bacterial conjugation , chromosome , rhizobiaceae , symbiosis , ecology , pesticide
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 IS 1071 . 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 genes (i) on the chromosome, (ii) on the same DNA fragment but on different plasmids and (iii) on DNA fragments also hybridizing with IS 1071 suggests that transposition may also contribute to disperse the atrazine‐degrading genes.