N-demethylation of neonicotinoid insecticide acetamiprid by bacterium Stenotrophomonas maltophilia CGMCC 1.1788.

Our previous study found that Stenotrophomonas maltophilia CGMCC 1.1788 could hydroxylate imidacloprid (IMI) to 5-hydroxy IMI. Here we first report that S. maltophilia CGMCC 1.1788 can demethylate acetamiprid (AAP) to form IM 2-1 that was characterized by HPLC-MS/MS and NMR. IM 2-1 retained only 10.5% contact activity and 13.1% oral activity of AAP against horsebean aphid. Time course of biotransformation under existing of sucrose revealed that 58.9% of AAP disappeared, but only 16.7% of reduced AAP was transformed to IM 2-1, after 8 days. Both demethylation and degradation of AAP contribute to the weak bioefficacy of AAP in soil application. The differences in metabolism and detoxification pathways between AAP and IMI are probably originated from the structural differences of these insecticides.