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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #83701
Title: FATE OF RING-NITROGEN DURING MICROBIAL DECOMPOSITION OF ATRAZINE

Author
item BICHAT, FRED - UNIV OF ILLINOIS
item SIMS, GERALD
item MULVANEY, RICHARD - UNIV OF ILLINOIS

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/12/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: M91-3 is a gram negative soil bacterium reported to use the side chains of atrazine as a source of N when glucose is provided as a C-source. Ring cleavage is thought to release additional N atoms, but this has not been fully documented. Our objective was to characterize the use of atrazine ring-N by M91-3. Nitrogen-15 tracer techniques were used to examine preferential utilization of N sources and availability of atrazine ring-N to the organism. Growth was estimated from protein content of the medium via calorimetric assay (Coomassie brilliant Blue G-250 dye). Atrazine was measured by HPLC. Though previously reported to accumulate in cultures of M91-3, urea was not detected (diacetyl monoxime colorimetric method) even when urea was a source of N. However NH4 was measured, suggesting the organism's urease activity completely consumed urea present in the medium. The organism preferentially utilized 15NH4 or 15N-labeled urea as N sources rather than atrazine. Cultures containing both 14C-ring and 15N-ring atrazine were used to differentiate utilization of atrazine ring-N from chain-N. For this purpose, 15N-ring atrazine was synthesized in a four step-pathway via cyanuric acid.