Biodegradation of atrazine by composite mycelium LMY01: Functions, preparation feasibility and effects on soil microbial communities

The utilisation of microorganisms for the remediation of environmental contamination represents an efficacious and non-polluting methodology. In this study, two strains of atrazine-degrading bacteria were cultivated in a composite mycelial sphere, designated LMY01, using a co-culture method. The optimisation of the degradation function using an artificial neural network demonstrated that the highest degradation rate of atrazine was 88.62 % within a five-day period. The metabolites of strain LM01 were observed to significantly promote the growth of strain MY01, with the OD600 of strain MY01 increasing by 126.29 % in comparison to the CK treatment following the addition of a sterile culture medium from strain LM01 that had been cultured for 72 h. The docking of the principal functional proteins of the strains demonstrated that proteins with higher binding energies to each other did not directly correlate with atrazine degradation, thus further validating the feasibility of the mycelial-seeking preparation. The results of the microbial diversity analysis indicated that the introduction of the strains resulted in an increase in the abundance of the Actinobacteriota and Acidobacteriota phyla , which may contribute to the degradation of atrazine. • Two strains of atrazine-degrading bacteria were used to produce composite mycelium. • Degradation conditions were optimized using a neural network ANN model. • Validation of the feasibility of mycelial sphere production by molecular docking • Effect on soil microbial diversity and abundance of composite mycelium.