Gliphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in the environment and their microbial transformation

Analysis of domestic and international literature indicates that the global use of glyphosate (GP), due to its effectiveness, low price and creation of herbicide-resistant agricultural crop varieties, resulted in nearly universal presence of the rest quantities of the herbicide and its main metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (АМPA) in the environment: air, soil, water and crop products. Scientific information on glyphosate influence on the environment and living organisms is presented in this paper. The necessity is substantiated for periodic remediation for reducing the negative consequences of the repeated application of herbicide and detoxification of its residual quantities with the use of destructor-bacteria, capable of decomposing glyphosate and AMPA to ecologically safe compounds. The ways for glyphosate microbial transformation are reviewed. Ecologically safe detoxification assumes the use of bacterial destructors, which are destroying the phosphonic bond in glyphosate molecule. Although the bacteria of different genera are showing capacity for GP biodegradation, commercial products for the safe detoxification of glyphosate have not yet been developed due to the high level of strain specificity associated with the different ways of GF catabolism. The most perspective is the search for GP and AMPA destructors among rhizosphere bacteria, intended for application as inoculants. Complexity of the problem of GP and AMPA detoxification as well as the high level of strain specificity of bacterial destructors significantly restrain development of commercial preparations for GP and AMPA detoxification.