abstract
A previously isolated atrazine-degrading bacterium, Arthrobacter sp. strain DAT1, was used to investigate
its potential of remediating soil with heavy contamination. Change of atrazine-degrading genetic
potential was estimated by quantitative PCR targeting trzN, atzB and atzC genes. Growth of the strain
DAT1 was monitored using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis. The
results indicated that this bioremediation process could achieve a high removal rate in 2e3 days.
Continuous increase in the number of trzN, atzB and atzC genes and the relative abundance of the strain
DAT1 was observed during the bioaugmentation process.
This work might provide some new insights toward bioremediation of heavily atrazine-contaminated
soil.