Discovery of a widespread metabolic pathway within and among phenolic xenobiotics

Significance Organisms are exposed to a wide range of xenobiotics in the environment. Generally, metabolism of individual xenobiotics to water-soluble compounds is a primary defense against these compounds. In this study, we discovered that phenolic xenobiotics undergo a metabolic pathway to form lipophilic ester compounds, and the pathway occurred within and among different compounds in organisms. The pathway provided a mechanism for cross-talk reactions among different pollutants to form groups of unknown compounds during metabolic processes in organisms.