Use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture has gradually increased since WWII along with development of many new pesticides. Over the years undesired exposure of these chemicals to natural environments has been a major concern and in some cases pesticides have been reported to cause environmental pollution and risk animal and human health. Atrazine, is a widely used herbicide used in the United States each year with a drinking water regulatory limit of 3 ug/L. Some studies report that atrazine can be toxic with prolonged exposure. Therefore rapid degradation is important to prevent non-point source pollution or pollution of ground water resources. Microorganisms naturally attenuate many synthetic chemicals by mineralizing the chemicals for energy. A number of atrazine-degrading microorganisms and some microbial mixed cultures capable of atrazine mineralization have been reported, most of which have been based on standard cultivated laboratory techniques. In this study, we are using a metagenome approach to identify atrazine degrading microbial species hitherto unidentified. A suitable organism (Rhodococcus sp) with atrazine degrading capacity was selected for the proposed study. The genes for degradation of EPTC and atrazine are localized in a 6.2 kb KpnI fragment. A plasmid, pBS305 - reported as an excellent shuttle vector between E.coli and Rhodococcus sp., is used for screening the environmental sample. A genomic library will be created for the soil sample. After knocking out a particular gene in the KpnI fragment, attempt will be made to recover the function from the restriction digest of the sample.