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Estimating the biodegradation of pesticide in soils by monitoring pesticide-degrading gene expression

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Abstract

Assessing in situ microbial abilities of soils to degrade pesticides is of great interest giving insight in soil filtering capability, which is a key ecosystem function limiting pollution of groundwater. Quantification of pesticide-degrading gene expression by reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was tested as a suitable indicator to monitor pesticide biodegradation performances in soil. RNA extraction protocol was optimized to enhance the yield and quality of RNA recovered from soil samples to perform RT-qPCR assays. As a model, the activity of atrazine-degrading communities was monitored using RT-qPCRs to estimate the level of expression of atzD in five agricultural soils showing different atrazine mineralization abilities. Interestingly, the relative abundance of atzD mRNA copy numbers was positively correlated to the maximum rate and to the maximal amount of atrazine mineralized. Our findings indicate that the quantification of pesticide-degrading gene expression may be suitable to assess biodegradation performance in soil and monitor natural attenuation of pesticide.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funding from the INSU-CNRS EC2CO program and by a grant from the council of ‘Région Bretagne’ to C. Monard and F. Binet. F. Martin-Laurent and Marion Devers-Lamrani were supported by an ONEMA grant entitled ‘Amélioration de l’efficacité des zones tampons pour les pesticides et influence de la biodégradation naturelle’. We thank Dr N. Samils for editing the English writing of the manuscript.

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  1. Cécile Monard

    Present address: Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, SLU, Box 7026, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR CNRS 6553 ‘EcoBio’—IFR2116/FR90 CAREN, Université de Rennes 1, 263 Avenue du Général Leclerc, Bat 14B, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    Cécile Monard, Oscar Lima & Françoise Binet

  2. UMR 1347 Agroecologie, AgroSup/INRA/Université de Bourgogne, 17 rue Sully, BP 86510, 21065, Dijon Cedex, France

    Fabrice Martin-Laurent & Marion Devers-Lamrani

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  1. Cécile Monard
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  2. Fabrice Martin-Laurent
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Correspondence to Cécile Monard or Françoise Binet.

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Monard, C., Martin-Laurent, F., Lima, O. et al. Estimating the biodegradation of pesticide in soils by monitoring pesticide-degrading gene expression. Biodegradation 24, 203–213 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-012-9574-5

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