title: Monitoring of atrazine treatment on soil bacterial, fungal and atrazine-degrading communities by quantitative competitive PCR.
abstract: We report the development of quantitative competitive (QC) PCR assays for quantifying the 16S, 18S ribosomal and atzC genes in nucleic acids directly extracted from soil. QC-PCR assays were standardised, calibrated and evaluated with an experimental study aiming to evaluate the impact of atrazine application on soil microflora. Comparison of QC-PCR 16S and 18S results with those of soil microbial biomass showed that, following atrazine application, the microbial biomass was not affected and that the amount of 16S rDNA gene representing 'bacteria' increased transitorily, while the amount of 18S rDNA gene representing fungi decreased in soil. In addition, comparison of atzC QC-PCR results with those of atrazine mineralisation revealed that, in response to atrazine treatment, the amount of atzC gene increased transitorily in soil pre-treated with atrazine, suggesting that accelerated atrazine biodegradation in soil could be due to a transient increase in the size of the atrazine mineralising community.
authors.affiliation: INRA-CMSE, UMR 111 INRA-Université de Bourgogne, Microbiologie des Sols-Geosol, 17 rue Sully, BP 86510, 21 065 Dijon Cedex, France. fmartin@dijon.inra.fr
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martin-Laurent
authors.forename: Séverine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piutti
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hallet
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wagschal
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Philippot
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Catroux
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Soulas
mesh_terms: D001280:Atrazine / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018533:Biomass; D002138:Calibration; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006540:Herbicides / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000032:analysis; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000032:analysis; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D006540:Herbicides; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S; D001280:Atrazine