Metabolic characterisation of fifteen atrazine-degrading microbial communities

Fifteen atrazine-degrading microbial communities obtained from different so urces were able to degrade atrazine in a liquid mineral medium as the main organic substrate at high rates (atrazine half-lives ranging from 20 to 164 h). Hydroxyatrazine was the sole metabolite detected. This metabolite was always transient but its maximum level varied from 4 to 67% of the parent c ompound. Communities originating from subsurface sediments degraded atrazin e at similar rates (half-lives between 56 and 62 h). A Biolog characterisat ion revealed a wide diversity of substrate utilisation by the communities o riginating either from the surface or the subsurface environments. Twenty-f our Biolog carbon sources were degraded by the fifteen communities. A multi ple regression analysis established a statistically significant relationshi p between the atrazine DT50 values of thirteen communities and their respon ses to four Biolog carbon sources.