Initially, most pesticides are highly effective and show minimal bacterial degradation; however, bacteria can rapidly evolve and gain the ability to metabolize potential nutrients in the environment.

[3] AtzA is an atrazine-dechlorinating enzyme with fairly restricted substrate specificity and plays a main role in the hydrolysis of atrazine to hydroxyatrazine in soils and groundwater.

strain ADP was shown to degrade atrazine to cyanuric acid via three steps, the first of which is a dechlorination.

[2] De Souza, Sadowsky and Wackett were able to determine the nucleotide and amino acid sequence in 1996.

AtzA was shown to displace fluoride as well as chlorine but not azido, cyano, methoxy, which are of similar size and electronegativity, or thiomethyl or amino groups.