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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Measuring Rates of Herbicide Metabolism in Dicot Weeds with an Excised Leaf Assay
Published on: September 7, 2015
Metabolism of the herbicide atrazine by Rhodococcus strains
1Centre for Land and Biological Resources Research, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Abstract:
Rhodococcus strains were screened for their ability to degrade the herbicide atrazine. Only rhodococci that degrade the herbicide EPTC (s-ethyl-dipropylthiocarbamate) metabolized atrazine. Rhodococcus strain TE1 metabolized atrazine under aerobic conditions to produce deethyl- and deisopropylatrazine, which were not degraded further and which accumulated in the incubation medium. The bacterium also metabolized the other s-triazine herbicides propazine, simazine, and cyanazine. The N dealkylation of triazine herbicides by Rhodococcus strain TE1 was associated with a 77-kb plasmid previously shown to be required for EPTC degradation.
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