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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2009, p. 5481-5488, Vol. 75, No. 17
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01030-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Bacterial Chemotaxis to Atrazine and Related s-Triazines{triangledown}

Xianxian Liu and Rebecca E. Parales*

Department of Microbiology, College of Biological Sciences, University of California, Davis, California 95616

Received 5 May 2009/ Accepted 24 June 2009

Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP utilizes the human-made s-triazine herbicide atrazine as the sole nitrogen source. The results reported here demonstrate that atrazine and the atrazine degradation intermediates N-isopropylammelide and cyanuric acid are chemoattractants for strain ADP. In addition, the nonmetabolized s-triazine ametryn was also an attractant. The chemotactic response to these s-triazines was not specifically induced during growth with atrazine, and atrazine metabolism was not required for the chemotactic response. A cured variant of strain ADP (ADP M13-2) was attracted to s-triazines, indicating that the atrazine catabolic plasmid pADP-1 is not necessary for the chemotactic response and that atrazine degradation and chemotaxis are not genetically linked. These results indicate that atrazine and related s-triazines are detected by one or more chromosomally encoded chemoreceptors in Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP. We demonstrated that Escherichia coli is attracted to the s-triazine compounds N-isopropylammelide and cyanuric acid, and an E. coli mutant lacking Tap (the pyrimidine chemoreceptor) was unable to respond to s-triazines. These data indicate that pyrimidines and triazines are detected by the same chemoreceptor (Tap) in E. coli. We showed that Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP is attracted to pyrimidines, which are the naturally occurring structures closest to triazines, and propose that chemotaxis toward s-triazines may be due to fortuitous recognition by a pyrimidine chemoreceptor in Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP. In competition assays, the presence of atrazine inhibited chemotaxis of Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP to cytosine, and cytosine inhibited chemotaxis to atrazine, suggesting that pyrimidines and s-triazines are detected by the same chemoreceptor.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, 226 Briggs Hall, 1 Shields Ave., University of California, Davis, CA 95616. Phone: (530) 754-5233. Fax: (530) 752-9014. E-mail: reparales{at}ucdavis.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 6 July 2009.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2009, p. 5481-5488, Vol. 75, No. 17
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01030-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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