Biotransformation and biomonitoring of phenylurea herbicide diuron

A Gram-positive, Micrococcus sp. strain PS-1 isolated from diuron storage site was studied for its capability of biotransformation of phenylurea herbicide diuron to a secondary metabolite, 1-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)urea (DCPU) for bioconjugation and antibody development applications. The metabolite formed associated with profound changes in bacterial cell morphology demonstrated increase in the degradation kinetics of diuron in presence of small quantity of a surfactant. The synthesized metabolite identified by chromatographic and mass spectrometry techniques was conjugated with carrier protein, and used as an immunogen for antibodies production. The generated antibody was highly specific, demonstrating excellent sensitivity against diuron. The antibody was used as receptor molecules in standard fluorescence immunoassay (FIA) format showing detection limit of 0.01 ng/mL in the optimum working concentration range of diuron with good signal precision (∼2%). The study presented first time the degradation pathway of herbicide by specific microorganism to synthesize hapten for bioconjugation and immunoassay development.