THE DECOMPOSITION OF UREA HERBICIDES BY BACILLUS SPHAERICUS, ISOLATED FROM SOIL

Summary. The decomposition of seven urea herbicides by Bacillus sphaericus was studied. Experiments with ¹⁴C-labelled monolinuron demonstrated that monolinuron was degraded by removal of CO₂ from the ureido portion of the molecule and leaving the /Kchloroaniline moiety. Tests with monuron, diuron, monolinuron, linuron, metobromuron, fluometuron and methabenzthiazuron indicated that B. sphaericus was only able to decompose the methoxy compounds monolinuron, linuron and metobromuron in this way. All compounds were identified by infrared spectroscopy. A pathway for degradation of the herbicides by B. sphaericus is proposed.