Transgenic rice plants expressing human CYP1A1 remediate the triazine herbicides atrazine and simazine.

The human cytochrome P450 CYP1A1 gene was introduced into rice plants (Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare). One-month-old CYP1A1 plants grown in soil clearly showed a healthy growth and tolerance to 8.8 microM atrazine and 50 microM simazine, but nontransgenic plants were completely killed by the herbicides. Although transgenic and nontransgenic plants metabolized the two herbicides into the same sets of compounds, CYP1A1 plants metabolized atrazine and simazine more rapidly than did control plants. In small-scale experiments, residual amounts of atrazine and simazine in the culture medium of CYP1A1 plants were 43.4 and 12.3% of those in control medium; those of nontransgenic Nipponbare were 68.3 and 57.2%, respectively. When cultivated in soil with 2.95 microM atrazine and 3.15 microM simazine for 25 days, CYP1A1 plants eliminated 1.3 times more atrazine and 1.4 times more simazine from the soil than did control plants. Thus, CYP1A1 rice plants make it possible to remove atrazine and simazine more rapidly from the culture medium and soil than can nontransgenic Nipponbare.