Combined metabolic activity within an atrazine-mineralizing community enriched from agrochemical factory soil

Scientific relevance: Despite numerous reports on atrazine degradation by pure bacterial cultures, the pathways and the atrazine-degrading gene combinations harboured by bacterial communities are only poorly described. In this work, we characterized a four-member atrazine-mineralizing community enriched from an agrochemical factory soil, which was capable of rapidly metabolizing atrazine to CO2. This study will contribute towards better understanding of the genetic potential and metabolic activities of atrazine-degrading communities, which are generally considered to be responsible for atrazine mineralization in the natural environment.