Methoxychlor biodegradation by reductive dechlorination. Bacteria from Odena's slurry

Methoxychlor, an organochlorine insecticide, has found extensive use in animal feeds, agriculture, and gardens in industrialized countries owing to its remarkable efficacy against a diverse variety of insects. Despite being phased out or banned in numerous countries since the early 2000s, this compound continues to highly pollute several sites due to its persistence in soils.Natural attenuation of methoxychlor has been reported possible through a verity of pathways such as oxidative dehydrochlorination, O-demethylation, carbon-nitrogen replacement, photolytic dechlorination and reductive dechlorination. Among all this degradation pathways reductive dechlorination is one of the main metabolic pathways involved in the microbial degradation of methoxychlor in freshwater sediments. This study assess the composition and structure of the bacterial communities, which are capable of growing in such environments and removing methoxychlor.