Biodegradation of s-triazine herbicide atrazine by Enterobacter cloacae and Burkholderia cepacia sp. from long-term treated sugarcane-cultivated soils in Kenya

In this study soils from sugarcane-cultivated fields were screened for bacterial species capable of atrazine (6-chloro-N2-ethyl-N4-isopropyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine) degradation due to long exposure of the soils to this herbicide. To enrich for atrazine degraders, Minimal Salt Medium containing atrazine as the sole N source and glucose as the C source was inoculated with soils impacted with this herbicide and incubated. Bacterial growth was monitored by measuring optical density. The degradation of atrazine was followed by measuring residual atrazine in liquid cultures over a given time period by high performance liquid chromatography. Bacterial strains isolated from the enrichment cultures were characterized by biochemical tests and identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Two bacterial strains coded ISL 8 and ISL 15 isolated from two different fields were shown to have 94 and 96% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Burkholderia cepacia respectively. Another bacterial sp., ISL 14 was closely related t...