creators_name: Singh, Anil Kumar creators_name: Cameotra, Swaranjit Singh type: article datestamp: 2015-07-20 03:34:26 lastmod: 2015-07-20 03:34:26 metadata_visibility: show title: Influence of microbial and synthetic surfactant on the biodegradation of atrazine. ispublished: pub subjects: QR keywords: Atrazine; Bio degradation note: Copyright of this article belongs to Springer. abstract: The present study reports the effect of surfactants (rhamnolipids and triton X-100) on biodegradation of atrazine herbicide by strain A6, belonging to the genus Acinetobacter. The strain A6 was able to degrade nearly 80 % of the 250-ppm atrazine after 6 days of growth. The bacterium degraded atrazine by de-alkylation process. Bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity as well as atrazine solubility increased in the presence of surfactant. However, addition of surfactant to the mineral salt media reduced the rate and extent of atrazine degradation by decreasing the bioavailability of herbicide. On the contrary, addition of surfactant to atrazine-contaminated soil increased the rate and extent of biodegradation by increasing the bioavailability of herbicide. As compared to triton X-100, rhamnolipids were more efficient in enhancing microbial degradation of atrazine as a significant amount of atrazine was removed from the soil by rhamnolipids. Surfactants added for the purpose of hastening microbial degradation may have an unintended inhibitory effect on herbicide degradation depending upon contiguous condition, thus highlighting the fact that surfactant must be judiciously used in bioremediation of herbicides. date: 2014-02 date_type: published publication: Environmental science and pollution research international volume: 21 number: 3 publisher: Springer pagerange: 2088-97 refereed: TRUE issn: 1614-7499 official_url: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11356-013-2127-6 citation: Singh, Anil Kumar and Cameotra, Swaranjit Singh (2014) Influence of microbial and synthetic surfactant on the biodegradation of atrazine. Environmental science and pollution research international, 21 (3). pp. 2088-97. ISSN 1614-7499