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Evidence for taxonomic and functional drift of an atrazine-degrading culture in response to high atrazine input

  • Environmental Biotechnology
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Abstract

We evaluated the effects of variations in atrazine input on the evolution of a bacterial culture adapted to a low atrazine concentration. This initial culture (M3-K) was subjected to weekly subculturing in the presence of a high concentration of atrazine as the only N source (100 mg l−1). After four subculturing, M3-K evolved to a new bacterial culture (M3) which exhibited a significant increase in the extent of atrazine mineralization in comparison with the initial culture. Molecular analyses of M3-K and M3 cultures by cloning, restriction analysis, and sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes revealed significant differences in culture structure and composition. M3-K culture comprised mainly Actinobacteria (40%), β-Proteobacteria (26%), and Bacteroidetes (16%). After exposure to a high atrazine concentration, the dominance of Actinobacteria decreased (14%), Bacteroidetes increased (27%), and β-Proteobacteria were replaced by γ-Proteobacteria (32%). Quantitative PCR revealed that the abundance of atzB and atzC genes relative to total bacteria decreased by a factor of 3–4 following the increase in atrazine concentration, while the relative abundance of trzD increased significantly (≈400 times). Presented study shows that variations in atrazine input drive both functional and compositional shifts in the atrazine-degrading bacterial culture.

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Acknowledgments

This work was part of a bilateral Croatian–French research project (COGITO, N°09893YK) funded by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The authors are indebted to N. Rouard from INRA, Laboratoire de Microbiologie du Sol et de l´Environnement, Dijon, France for her assistance in qPCR experiments. They also wish to thank D. Bru from the Service de Séquençage et de Génotypage (SSG, Dijon, France) for providing access to sequencing and qPCR facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Rudjer Bošković Institute, Bijenička 54, P.O. Box 180, 10002, Zagreb, Croatia

    Nikolina Udiković-Kolić, Ines Petrić & Dubravka Hršak

  2. INRA, Universite´ de Bourgogne, Microbiologie du Sol et de l’Environnement, 17 rue Sully, B.P. 86510, 21065, Dijon Cedex, France

    Marion Devers-Lamrani & Fabrice Martin-Laurent

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  1. Nikolina Udiković-Kolić
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  2. Marion Devers-Lamrani
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  3. Ines Petrić
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  4. Dubravka Hršak
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  5. Fabrice Martin-Laurent
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Correspondence to Nikolina Udiković-Kolić.

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Udiković-Kolić, N., Devers-Lamrani, M., Petrić, I. et al. Evidence for taxonomic and functional drift of an atrazine-degrading culture in response to high atrazine input. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 90, 1547–1554 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3198-2

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