Evaluation of the capacity of the cyanobacterium Microcystis novacekii to remove atrazine from a culture medium.

The bioaccumulation of atrazine and its toxicity were evaluated for the cyanobacterium Microcystis novacekii. Cyanobacterial cultures were grown in WC culture medium with atrazine at 50, 250 and 500 μg L(-1). After 96 hours of exposure, 27.2% of the atrazine had been removed from the culture supernatant. Spontaneous degradation was found to be insignificant (< 9% at 500 μg L(-1)), indicating a high efficiency for the bioaccumulation of atrazine by M. novacekii. There were no atrazine metabolites detected in the culture medium at any of the doses studied. The acute toxicity (EC(50)) of atrazine to the cyanobacterium was 4.2 mg L(-1) at 96 hours demonstrating the potential for M. novacekii to tolerate high concentrations of this herbicide in fresh water environments. The ability of M. novacekii to remove atrazine combined with its tolerance of the pesticide toxicity showed in this study makes it a potential biological resource for the restoration of contaminated surface waters. These findings support continued studies of the role of M. novacekii in the bioremediation of fresh water environments polluted by atrazine.