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  • Review Article
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Organophosphorus-degrading bacteria: ecology and industrial applications

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 7, pages 156–164 (2009)Cite this article

Key Points

  • Organophosphorus (OP) compounds are widely used as pesticides, petroleum additives and plasticizers. A large amount of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) also belong to the OP group. As a result of extensive and excessive use, environmental contamination with OP pesticides has been reported in several parts of the world.

  • Owing to high mammalian toxicity, OP waste and residues are excellent candidates for bioremediation. An effective therapy for intentional and unintentional OP poisoning is also needed.

  • Several bacteria, a few fungi and cyanobacteria with the capability to degrade OP compounds, using OP as a source of energy or co-metabolically, have been isolated from different corners of the globe. Some have been successfully used for bioremediation.

  • Most of the enzymes isolated from various phylogenetically different bacteria fall in three main types: OPH (OP hydrolase), MPH (methyl parathion hydrolase) and OP acid anhydrolase). These enzymes belong to three separate superfamilies.

  • The origin and evolution of OP-degrading enzymes are still a matter of debate. Recent findings suggest that at least OPH may have originated from the promiscuous activity of lactonase (an enzyme that hydrolyses lactones).

  • OP-degrading bacteria and their enzymes could form the basis of multiple biotechnological applications across several disciplines (such as bioremediation, and medical and genetic marker industries). However, to convert this promise into practice, emerging technologies, such as metagenomics and nanotechnology, together with conventional biochemical and molecular approaches, need to be adopted.

Abstract

The first organophosphorus (OP) compound-degrading bacterial strain was isolated from a paddy field in the Philippines in 1973. Since then, several phylogenetically distinct bacteria that can degrade OP by co-metabolism, or use OPs as a source of carbon, phosphorus or nitrogen, have been isolated from different parts of the world. There is huge potential for industrial applications of OP-degrading bacteria. Important advances in our understanding of the microbiology, genomics and evolution of OP-degrading bacteria have been made over the past four decades, and are discussed in this Review.

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Figure 1: Phylogenetic tree constructed from organophosphorus-degrading gene sequences.
Figure 2: Genomic organizations of three known organophosphorus-degrading genes.

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Acknowledgements

I thank A. Taylor (Macaulay Institute), G. Elliott (Macaulay Institute), I. Anderson (University of Western Sydney) and G. Bending (Warwick HRI) for their comments on the manuscript, and P. Millard (Macaulay Institute) and C. Macdonald (Rothamsted Research) for detailed discussions. Work in my laboratory is funded by the Scottish Government.

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    Brajesh K. Singh

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DATABASES

Entrez Genome Project

Agrobacterium radiobacter

Bacillus thuringiensis

Chromobacterium violaceum

Deinococcus radiodurans

Desulfatibacillum alkenivorans

Escherichia coli

Leptothrix cholodnii

Methylibium petroleiphilum

Mycobacterium bovis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Alteromonas haloplanktis

Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021

Sulfolobus acidocaldarius

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Bioremediation

A biological process that uses living organisms or their products (enzymes) to convert a harmful substance to a non-toxic substance or to return the contaminated environment to its original condition.

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A detector device made from a biological component combined with a physico–chemical detector that is used for detection of a substance or chemical.

Biodegradation

A process by which an indigenous bacterial population acquires genes that encode enzymes to allow the use of xenobiotics as an energy source.

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A chemical that is usually man-made and is not found naturally in the environment.

Bioreactor

A device or system that supports a biologically active environment.

Nanoparticle

A small particle (one or more dimensions of ∼100 nM or less) that behaves as a whole unit; for example, in terms of transportation.

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Singh, B. Organophosphorus-degrading bacteria: ecology and industrial applications. Nat Rev Microbiol 7, 156–164 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2050

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