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Evolution of efficient pathways for degradation of anthropogenic chemicals

Nature Chemical Biology volume 5, pages 559–566 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Anthropogenic compounds used as pesticides, solvents and explosives often persist in the environment and can cause toxicity to humans and wildlife. The persistence of anthropogenic compounds is due to their recent introduction into the environment; microbes in soil and water have had relatively little time to evolve efficient mechanisms for degradation of these new compounds. Some anthropogenic compounds are easily degraded, whereas others are degraded very slowly or only partially, leading to accumulation of toxic products. This review examines the factors that affect the ability of microbes to degrade anthropogenic compounds and the mechanisms by which new pathways emerge in nature. New approaches for engineering microbes with enhanced degradative abilities include assembly of pathways using enzymes from multiple organisms, directed evolution of inefficient enzymes, and genome shuffling to improve microbial fitness under the challenging conditions posed by contaminated environments.

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Figure 1: Two pathways for biodegradation of anthrogenic pollutants introduced in the 20th century.
Figure 2: Examples of promiscuous enzymatic activities.
Figure 3: Binding of ligands to the active site of o-succinylbenzoate synthase.
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6: An engineered pathway for degradation of paraoxon that uses enzymes from four different microbes.
Figure 7: An engineered pathway for degradation of cis-1,2-dichloroethylene that uses enzymes with promiscuous activities from two different bacteria.

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Acknowledgements

S.D.C. acknowledges financial support from the US National Institutes of Health (GM078554).

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  1. Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Shelley D Copley

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Copley, S. Evolution of efficient pathways for degradation of anthropogenic chemicals. Nat Chem Biol 5, 559–566 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.197

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