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Chemotaxis to atrazine and detection of a xenobiotic catabolic plasmid in Arthrobacter sp. DNS10

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Abstract

Introduction

A plasmid named pDNS10 was detected from an atrazine-degrading strain Arthrobacter sp. DNS10 which has been isolated previously in our laboratory.

Materials and methods

In this paper, a special plasmid-detecting method and drop assays experiments were mainly used to achieve research goals.

Results and discussion

pDNS10 exhibited an excellent stability because it also could be detected even when the strain DNS10 has been subcultured under nonselective conditions for eight times. Over a 48-h incubation period, the OD600 of samples inoculated with strain DNS10 and strain DNS10-ST (both of them contained pDNS10) were 0.31 ± 0.042 and 0.305 ± 0.034, respectively ,whereas the OD600 of samples inoculated strain without pDNS10 (strain DNS10-PE) was only 0.138 ± 0.018. No atrazine was detected in the inoculated strain DNS10 and strain DNS10-ST samples at this period. Contrarily, the atrazine-degrading rate of strain DNS10-PE was only 5.23 ± 0.71%. Furthermore, both the two types of strains containing pDNS10 confirmed the presence of known degrading genes such as trzN, atzB, and atzC. It suggests that pDNS10 is an atrazine catabolic plasmid. In drop assays experiments, the wild-type strain DNS10 cells were chemotactically attracted to atrazine, whereas strain DNS10-PE showed no chemotaxis to atrazine and hydroxyatrazine. There was some relationship between atrazine degradation and the chemotactic response towards atrazine in strain DNS10.

Conclusions

The biochemical characteristics of pDNS10 and the chemotaxis characteristics of strain DNS10 could help us in better understanding of the mechanism of atrazine degradation by strain DNS10.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30970525), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Heilongjiang Provincial University (1155-NCET-006), Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Heilongjiang Province (JC201006), and New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-10-0145), Chang Jiang Scholar Candidates Program for Provincial Universities in Heilongjiang (CSCP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources & Environment, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, People’s Republic of China

    Ying Zhang, Zhao Jiang, Bo Cao, Miao Hu, Zhigang Wang & Xiaonan Dong

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  1. Ying Zhang
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  2. Zhao Jiang
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  3. Bo Cao
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  4. Miao Hu
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  5. Zhigang Wang
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  6. Xiaonan Dong
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Correspondence to Ying Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Co-first author: Zhao Jiang

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Zhang, Y., Jiang, Z., Cao, B. et al. Chemotaxis to atrazine and detection of a xenobiotic catabolic plasmid in Arthrobacter sp. DNS10. Environ Sci Pollut Res 19, 2951–2958 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-0805-4

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