Bio-catalytic system of metallohydrolases for remediation of neurotoxin organophosphates and applications with a future vision.

Organophosphates (OPs) compounds are universally used as pesticides and maintained as chemical warfare agents by many nations across the globe. These OPs compounds due to their molecular structure are highly persistent in nature, contaminating soil and water equally, thereby adversely affecting terrestrial and aquatic life, and contributing to millions of poisoning cases every year worldwide. Therefore, there are urgent requirements for safe and rapid method for environmental restoration and therapeutic detoxications. Organophosphate hydrolyzing enzymes are emerging as an attractive candidate for the degradation of OPs compounds. The biologically driven approach is safe, rapid, and environment-friendly. As genetically modified microbes are not in practice worldwide, scientists are exploring different bioremediation approaches that mainly focus on cell-free biocatalytic systems. In this review, we have discussed the prevalence of OPs hydrolyzing enzymatic systems and the recent advancement of enzyme engineering in enhancing the catalytic activity, substrate specificity, and half-life. It highlights the application in OPs detection, decontamination (environmental bioremediation), and therapeutic detoxification using approaches like immobilization. We have also described the remaining challenges and future prospects.

Simultaneous Detection and Quantification of Phytohormones by a Sensitive Method of Separation in Culture of Pseudomonas sp.

A high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC)-based sensitive, rapid and stringent protocol is designed for detection and quantification of five phytohormones simultaneously. Culture filtrate of Pseudomonas bacteria was acidified with 7 M HCl and extracted with an equal volume of ethyl acetate to separate abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), gibberellic acid (GA3), and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Kinetin was extracted from the remaining water fraction of the same extract. Various extracts were loaded on silica gel 60 F254 foil using Linomat 5 spray on applicator. Standard phytohormones were also loaded adjacent to the sample, and the foils were developed with isopropanol-ammonia-water [10:1:1 (v/v)] as the mobile phase. A quantitative estimation of the separated ABA, kinetin, JA, GA3, and IAA was performed by measuring the absorbance at 260, 275, 295, 265, and 280 nm, respectively. HPTLC method was found to be cost effective, robust technique that can be routinely used for simultaneous phytohormone detection in plant or bacterial samples. The present work is not only useful for detection and quantification of phytohormones but also for screening of phytohormone producing microorganisms.