title: The atrazine catabolism genes atzABC are widespread and highly conserved.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Biological Process Technology Institute, and Center for Biodegradation Research and Informatics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108, USA.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seffernick
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sadowsky
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Wackett
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D001280:Atrazine