The atrazine catabolism genes atzABC are widespread and highly conserved.
Pseudomonas strain ADP metabolizes the herbicide atrazine via three enzymatic steps, encoded by the genes atzABC, to yield cyanuric acid, a nitrogen source for many bacteria. Here, we show that five geographically distinct atrazine-degrading bacteria contain genes homologous to atzA, -B, and -C. The sequence identities of the atz genes from different atrazine-degrading bacteria were greater than 99% in all pairwise comparisons. This differs from bacterial genes involved in the catabolism of other chlorinated compounds, for which the average sequence identity in pairwise comparisons of the known members of a class ranged from 25 to 56%. Our results indicate that globally distributed atrazine-catabolic genes are highly conserved in diverse genera of bacteria.
de Souza
M L
ML
Department of Biochemistry, Biological Process Technology Institute, and Center for Biodegradation Research and Informatics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108, USA.
Seffernick
J
J
Martinez
B
B
Sadowsky
M J
MJ
Wackett
L P
LP
D001280:Atrazine / Q000378:metabolism*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D001280:Atrazine