title: Biodegradability of HCH in agricultural soils from Guadeloupe (French West Indies): identification of the lin genes involved in the HCH degradation pathway.
abstract: Banana has been a main agricultural product in the French West Indies (Guadeloupe and Martinique) since the 1960s. This crop requires the intensive use of pesticides to prevent attacks by insect pests. Chlorinated pesticides, such as hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), chlordecone and dieldrin, were used until the beginning of the 1990s, resulting in a generalized diffuse contamination of the soil and water in the areas of banana production, hence the need to develop solutions for cleanup of the polluted sites. The aims of this work were (i) to assess lindane degradation in soil slurry microcosms treated with lindane at 10 mg/L and (ii) to detect the catabolic genes involved in the HCH degradation pathway. The soil slurry microcosm system showed a 40% lindane degradation efficiency at the end of a 30-day experiment. Lower lindane removal was also detected in the abiotic controls, probably caused by pesticide adsorption to soil particles. Indeed, the lindane concentration decreased from 6000 to 1330 ng/mL and from 800 to 340 ng/mL for the biotic and abiotic soils, respectively. Nevertheless, some of the genes involved in the HCH degradation pathway were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from crude deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from the Guadeloupe agricultural soil, suggesting that HCH degradation is probably mediated by bacteria closely related to the family Sphingomonadaceae.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire COVACHIM-M2E, EA 3592, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, BP 250, 97157, Pointe à Pitre Cedex, Guadeloupe. laurent.laquitaine@univ-ag.fr.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Laquitaine
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire COVACHIM-M2E, EA 3592, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, BP 250, 97157, Pointe à Pitre Cedex, Guadeloupe.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Durimel
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Central Environnemental (GR-CEL), Faculté de l'environnement naturel, architectural et construit (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: de Alencastro
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire COVACHIM-M2E, EA 3592, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, BP 250, 97157, Pointe à Pitre Cedex, Guadeloupe.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jean-Marius
authors.affiliation: UMR UPMC-CNRS-IRD-MNHN, Systématique, Adaptation, Evolution, Equipe, Biologie de la Mangrove, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, BP 592, 97159, Pointe à Pitre Cedex, Guadeloupe.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gros
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire COVACHIM-M2E, EA 3592, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, BP 250, 97157, Pointe à Pitre Cedex, Guadeloupe.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gaspard
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D019430:Guadeloupe; D001556:Hexachlorocyclohexane / Q000378:metabolism*; D007306:Insecticides / Q000378:metabolism*; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism; D042301:Sphingomonadaceae / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D007306:Insecticides; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D001556:Hexachlorocyclohexane
keywords: Lindane degradation; Soil bacteria; Soil slurry microcosm; Sphingobium; lin genes