Iprodione degradation by isolated soil microorganisms
Three bacterial strains were isolated from soils adapted to iprodione and identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas sp. and Pseudomonas paucimobilis. The first two strains transformed iprodione to N-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-2,4-dioxoimidazolidine (II) and under restrictive conditions to 3,5-dichlorophenylurea acetic acid (III); the latter subsequently degraded II to III and III to 3,5-dichloroaniline (3,5-D). We constructed bacterial combinations consisting of Pseudomonas paucimobilis plus one of the iprodione degraders and showed that these combinations transformed iprodione into 3,5-D. It is known that 3,5-D was the major metabolite found in adapted soils, suggesting that such a bacterial combination might be responsible for degrading iprodione into 3,5-D in adapted soils. Plasmids could only be isolated in Pseudomonas fluorescens but we did not investigate if one of these was involved in the ability to degrade iprodione.