The Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP is the best-characterized organism able to mineralize the s-triazine herbicide atrazine. This organism has been the subject of extensive biochemical and genetic characterization that has led to its use in bioremediation programs aimed at the decontamination of atrazine-polluted sites. Here, we focus on the recent advances in the understanding of the mechanisms of genetic regulation operating on the atrazine-degradative genes. The Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP atrazine-degradation pathway is encoded by two sets of genes: the constitutively expressed atzA, atzB and atzC, and the strongly regulated atzDEF operon. A complex cascade-like circuit is responsible for the integrated regulation of atzDEF expression in response to nitrogen availability and cyanuric acid. Mechanistic studies have revealed several unusual traits, such as the upstream activating sequence-independent regulation and repression by competition with σ54-RNA polymerase for DNA binding occurring at the σ54-dependent PatzR promoter, and the dual mechanism of transcriptional regulation of the PatzDEF promoter by the LysR-type regulator AtzR in response to two dissimilar signals. These findings have provided new insights into the regulation of the atrazine-biodegradative pathway that are also relevant to widespread bacterial regulatory phenomena, such as global nitrogen control and transcriptional activation by LysR-type transcriptional regulators.

Our work on the regulation of atrazine degradation has been supported by grants QLK3-CT-1999-00041 (European Union), BIO2004-01354 and BIO2007-63754 (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain), and fellowships from the I3P (CSIC/Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain) and FPU (Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Spain) programs, awarded to O.P. and V.G.-G., respectively.

8 páginas, 4 figuras.

Peer reviewed