title: Isolation and characterisation of a bacterial strain degrading the herbicide sulcotrione from an agricultural soil.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The dissipation kinetics of the herbicide sulcotrione sprayed 4 times on a French soil was studied using a laboratory microcosm approach. An advanced cultivation-based method was then used to isolate the bacteria responsible for biotransformation of sulcotrione. Chromatographic methods were employed as complementary tools to define its metabolic pathway.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Soil microflora was able quickly to biotransform the herbicide (DT(50) ≈ 8 days). 2-Chloro-4-mesylbenzoic acid, one of its main metabolites, was clearly detected. However, no accelerated biodegradation process was observed. Eight pure sulcotrione-resistant strains were isolated, but only one (1OP) was capable of degrading this herbicide with a relatively high efficiency and to use it as a sole source of carbon and energy. In parallel, another sulcotrione-resistant strain (1TRANS) was shown to be incapable of degrading the herbicide. Amplified ribosomal restriction analysis (ARDRA) and repetitive extragenic palendromic PCR genomic (REP-PCR) fingerprinting of strains 1OP and 1TRANS gave indistinguishable profiles.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sequencing and aligning analysis of 16S rDNA genes of each pure strain revealed identical sequences and a close phylogenetic relationship (99% sequence identity) to Pseudomonas putida. Such physiological and genetic properties of 1OP to metabolise sulcotrione were probably governed by mobile genetic elements in the genome of the bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie des Biomolécules et de l'Environnement, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Perpignan, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Calvayrac
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martin-Laurent
authors.forename: Alexia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faveaux
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Picault
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Panaud
authors.forename: Camille-Michel
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Coste
authors.forename: Hanene
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chaabane
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D003512:Cyclohexanones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006540:Herbicides / Q000378:metabolism*; D008698:Mesylates / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D003512:Cyclohexanones; D006540:Herbicides; D008698:Mesylates; C079906:sulcotrione