Degradation and metabolism of hexazinone by two isolated bacterial strains from soil

Two hexazinone-degrading bacterial strains were isolated from soil by enrichment culture technique, and identified as Pseudomonas sp. and Enterobacter cloacap. The two purified isolates, designated as WFX-1 and WFX-2, could rapidly degrade hexazinone with a half-life of 3.08 days and 2.95 days in mineral salt medium (MSM), while their mixed bacterial culture was found to degrade hexazinone, at an initial concentration of 50 μg/ml, by enhancing 2.3-fold over that when the isolates were used alone. Two microbial metabolites (A and D) were obtained by preparative TLC and identified on the basis of the spectral data of IR, 1H NMR and HPLC–ESI–MS, but both of them were known products as they had been reported in soil and vegetation metabolites of hexazinone. However, metabolites B and C were new degradates, whose molecular weights (MW) were 157 and 156, respectively, being reported from microbial metabolism for the first time.