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J Bacteriol, April 1998, p. 1951-1954, Vol. 180, No. 7
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

The Atrazine Catabolism Genes atzABC Are Widespread and Highly Conserved

Mervyn L. de Souza,1,2,3 Jennifer Seffernick,1,3 Betsy Martinez,1,3 Michael J. Sadowsky,2,3,4,5 and Lawrence P. Wackett1,2,3,4,*

Department of Biochemistry,1 Department of Microbiology,4 Department of Soil, Water, and Climate,5 Biological Process Technology Institute,2 and Center for Biodegradation Research and Informatics,3 University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108

Received 22 May 1997/Accepted 28 January 1998

Pseudomonas strain ADP metabolizes the herbicide atrazine via three enzymatic steps, encoded by the genes atzABC, to yield cyanuric acid, a nitrogen source for many bacteria. Here, we show that five geographically distinct atrazine-degrading bacteria contain genes homologous to atzA, -B, and -C. The sequence identities of the atz genes from different atrazine-degrading bacteria were greater than 99% in all pairwise comparisons. This differs from bacterial genes involved in the catabolism of other chlorinated compounds, for which the average sequence identity in pairwise comparisons of the known members of a class ranged from 25 to 56%. Our results indicate that globally distributed atrazine-catabolic genes are highly conserved in diverse genera of bacteria.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, Biological Process Technology Institute and Center for Biodegradation Research & Informatics, University of Minnesota, 240 Gortner Labs, 1479 Gortner Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. Phone: (612) 625-3785. Fax: (612) 625-1700. E-mail: wackett{at}biosci.cbs.umn.edu.




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