Gayatri Basapuram has a new publication in ACS Omega

Biotransformation of Pesticides across Biological Systems: Molecular Mechanisms, Omics Insights, and Biotechnological Advances for Environmental Sustainability

This review provides a comprehensive overview of how pesticides are transformed across diverse biological and environmental systems, from microbes and plants to soil and aquatic environments. It highlights the molecular mechanisms and omics-based insights that reveal how these transformations occur and explores emerging biotechnological approaches for promoting environmental sustainability through pesticide bioremediation. This work is an important contribution to the fields of geomicrobiology and GeoHealth, stating how microbial and geochemical interactions influence contaminant fate, ecosystem integrity, and overall human and environmental health.  

Authors: 

Gayatri Basapuram¹, Srimanti Duttagupta¹, Avishek Dutta^1,2, 

         _{1-Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA}

          _{2-Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina, USA}

Abstract

The widespread application of pesticides such as organophosphates, organochlorides, and triazines in modern agriculture has led to their notable presence in soils, water bodies, and food chains, raising concerns about persistence, bioaccumulation, and adverse effects on nontarget organisms. Biotransformation, the enzymatic transformation of xenobiotic compounds by microorganisms, plants, and animals, plays a pivotal role in the degradation and detoxification of these chemicals. This review provides a comprehensive examination of the mechanisms, key enzyme classes (e.g., hydrolases, oxidoreductases, transferases), and environmental factors influencing pesticide biotransformation across different biological systems. Recent advances in omics technologies have revolutionized the understanding of microbial and plant metabolism, while synthetic biology offers opportunities for engineering enhanced degradation capabilities. The environmental fate of transformation products is also discussed, together with a critical analysis of challenges, unresolved questions, and future research directions, offering a holistic perspective on pesticide biotransformation as a key process for mitigating chemical pollution.