Degradation of substituted phenylurea herbicides by Arthrobacter globiformis strain D47 and characterization of a plasmid-associated hydrolase gene, puhA.

ABSTRACT: Arthrobacter globiformis D47 was shown to degrade a range of substituted phenylurea herbicides in soil. This strain contained two plasmids of approximately 47 kb (pHRIM620) and 34 kb (pHRIM621). Plasmid-curing experiments produced plasmid-free strains as well as strains containing either the 47- or the 34-kb plasmid. The strains were tested for their ability to degrade diuron, which demonstrated that the degradative genes were located on the 47-kb plasmid. Studies on the growth of these strains indicated that the ability to degrade diuron did not offer a selective advantage to A. globiformis D47 on minimal medium designed to contain the herbicide as a sole carbon source. The location of the genes on a plasmid and a lack of selection would explain why the degradative phenotype, as with many

SUBMITTER: Turnbull GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC92866 | biostudies-literature | 2001 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature