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16S rRNA gene phylogeny and tfdA gene analysis of 2,4-D-degrading bacteria isolated in China

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Abstract

Twenty-two 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)-degrading bacterial isolates were collected from agricultural soils at three sites in China. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA genes indicated that the isolates were phylogenetically grouped into four categories: Ochrobactrum anthropi, in the Alpha- class of the phylum Proteobacteria (3 out of 22 isolates), Cupriavidus sp., of the Betaproteobacteria (3 out of 22), Pseudomonas sp. and Stenotrophomonas sp., which are Gammaproteobacteria (7 out of 22), and Bacillus sp., of the phylum Firmicutes (9 out of 22). Primers were designed to amplify the conserved domain of tfdA, which is known to be involved in the degradation of 2,4-D. Results showed that the tfdA genes of all 22 strains were most similar to that of Cupriavidus necator JMP134, which belongs to the 2,4-D/α-ketoglutarate dioxygenase TfdA protein family, indicating that the JMP134-type tfdA gene is likely to be almost universal among the 2,4-D-degrading bacteria isolated from China. Degradation abilities of these 22 strains were investigated in assays using 2,4-D as the sole source of carbon and energy. Thirteen strains degraded >60 % of the available 2,4-D (500 mg l−1) over a 1-week incubation period, while a further nine Bacillus sp. strains degraded 50–81 % of the available 2,4-D. None of these nine strains degraded other selected herbicides, such as mecoprop, 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, quizalofop, and fluroxypyr. This is the first report of 2,4-D-degradation by Bacilli.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Transgenic Major Project (2011ZX08010-003) from China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Nature Science Foundation Project J [2013] 2123 of Guizhou Province, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, Guizhou, China

    Lizhen Han, Yanbo Liu & Degang Zhao

  2. College of Life Science, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, Guizhou, China

    Lizhen Han & Degang Zhao

  3. Guizhou Key Laboratory of Agro-Bioengineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, Guizhou, China

    Yanbo Liu & Degang Zhao

  4. College of Foreign Language, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, Guizhou, China

    Aigong He

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  1. Lizhen Han
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Correspondence to Degang Zhao.

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Han, L., Liu, Y., He, A. et al. 16S rRNA gene phylogeny and tfdA gene analysis of 2,4-D-degrading bacteria isolated in China. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 30, 2567–2576 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-014-1680-6

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