Butachlor is a widely utilized acetamide herbicide noted for its systemic selectivity against pre-emergence grass weeds. Butachlor has negative effects on organisms and the environment, so it is necessary to screen degradation strains. In this investigation, Bacillus cereus strain DC-1 was isolated from soil persistently exposed to butachlor. Through rigorous single-factor and response surface analyses, strain DC-1 exhibited a notable 87.06% degradation efficiency under optimized conditions where the temperature was 32.89 °C, pH was 7.29, and inoculum concentration was 5.18%. It was further hypothesized by LC-MS that the degradation pathway of butachlor by strain DC-1 might be as follows: butachlor undergoes initial deoxygenation catalyzed by dioxygenases to form 2-chloro-N-(2,6-diethylphenyl)-N-methylacetamide, followed by N-demethylation yielding 2-chloro-N-(2,6-diethylphenyl) acetamide, and culminating in conversion to 2,6-diethylphenol. In addition, bioremediation experiments of butachlor-contaminated soil were conducted. The results show that strain DC-1 could degradable 99.23% of butachlor (100 mg·kg−1) from the soil within 12 d, and soil sucrase, cellulase, and urease activities are promoted by the bacteria. And through high-throughput sequencing, it was concluded that the strain DC-1 was able to influence the relative abundance of certain bacteria in the soil, and make the microbial community in the soil develop in a more stable and beneficial direction. DC-1 thus represents a valuable resource in the realm of butachlor degradation due to its robust efficacy, favorable characteristics, and ecological restorative capabilities, underscoring its promising role in the bioremediation of butachlor-contaminated soils.
