Bioremediation of Herbicide Atrazine by Fungal sp. Aspergillus alliaceus Strain JAV1 Isolated from Paddy Field Soil in Vellore

The herbicide atrazine (2-Chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-s-triazine) is widely used on crops such as maize, sugarcane, corn, pineapple and sorghum. Although atrazine is an effective herbicide, the persistence of this herbicide leads to contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water. This work presents the laboratory studies on the degradation of atrazine. Atrazine degrading fungal strain JAV1 was isolated from paddy field. The molecular characterization based on 18S rRNA sequence revealed the strain JAV1 as Aspergillus alliaceus. The strain was able to degrade atrazine at the concentration of 1500 mgL^-1 and their complete degradation was seen on sixth day of incubation by strain JAV1. The results were confirmed with the help of sophisticated instruments such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).