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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2000, p. 5110-5115, Vol. 66, No. 12
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Enrichment and Molecular Characterization of a Bacterial Culture That Degrades Methoxy-Methyl Urea Herbicides and Their Aniline Derivatives

Said El-Fantroussi*

Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, University of Ghent, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium

Received 10 April 2000/Accepted 6 September 2000

Soil treated with linuron for more than 10 years showed high biodegradation activity towards methoxy-methyl urea herbicides. Untreated control soil samples taken from the same location did not express any linuron degradation activity, even after 40 days of incubation. Hence, the occurrence in the field of a microbiota having the capacity to degrade a specific herbicide was related to the long-term treatment of the soil. The enrichment culture isolated from treated soil showed specific degradation activity towards methoxy-methyl urea herbicides, such as linuron and metobromuron, while dimethyl urea herbicides, such as diuron, chlorotoluron, and isoproturon, were not transformed. The putative metabolic intermediates of linuron and metobromuron, the aniline derivatives 3,4-dichloroaniline and 4-bromoaniline, were also degraded. The temperature of incubation drastically affected degradation of the aniline derivatives. Whereas linuron was transformed at 28 and 37°C, 3,4-dichloroaniline was transformed only at 28°C. Monitoring the enrichment process by reverse transcription-PCR and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) showed that a mixture of bacterial species under adequate physiological conditions was required to completely transform linuron. This research indicates that for biodegradation of linuron, several years of adaptation have led to selection of a bacterial consortium capable of completely transforming linuron. Moreover, several of the putative species appear to be difficult to culture since they were detectable by DGGE but were not culturable on agar plates.

* Present address: Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, 201 More Hall, Box 352700, Seattle, WA 98195-2700. Phone: (206) 685-3464. Fax: (206) 685-9185. E-mail: fantrous{at}hotmail.com.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2000, p. 5110-5115, Vol. 66, No. 12
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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