[Growth and degradation characteristics of an efficient and broad-spectrum atrazine-degrading strain SB5]

In this study, triazine-degrading strain SB5 was isolated and screened from the activated sludge contaminated with atrazine by enrichment culture technology. Based on its morphology and 16S rRNA gene analysis, strain SB5 was initially identified as Paenarthrobacter sp. It contained the atrazine-degrading genes trzN, atzB, and atzC. The addition of glucose, sucrose, sodium citrate, yeast extract and peptone to the culture medium significantly increased the biomass and atrazine degradation efficiency of strain SB5. The addition of (NH₄)₂SO₄ and NH₄Cl inhibited the biomass of strain SB5, but did not affect its degradation efficiency for atrazine. The addition of starch did not affect the biomass of strain SB5, but significantly inhibited its degradation for atrazine. Strain SB5 showed good atrazine tolerance and atrazine degradation ability in the temperature range of 4-42 ℃, initial pH of 4-10 and initial concentration of 50-1000 mg·L^-1. Using 100 mg·L^-1 atrazine as the sole carbon source, the strain SB5 degraded 100% of atrazine within 36 h under the optimal conditions of 37 ℃ and initial pH 8.0. The results of degradation spectrum analysis showed that strain SB5 had a good degradation effect on the six triazine herbicides (simazine, terbuthylazine, propazine, cyanazine, ametryn and prometryn) at an initial concentration of 100 mg·L^-1, and the degradation rates were 86.4%, 92%, 98.6%, 95.6%, 100% and 99.2% after 48 h of incubation, respectively. The results demonstrated that SB5 was an efficient and broad-spectrum degradation strain. The strain SB5 further enriched the strain resources for atrazine biodegradation, and its high-efficient and broad-spectrum degradation characteristics for triazine herbicides showed a potential application value in the development of bioremediation technology for the pollution of triazine herbicides.