Environmental Distribution, Metabolic Fate, and Degradation Mechanism of Chlorpyrifos: Recent and Future Perspectives.

Pesticides play a significant role in crop production and have become an inevitable part of the modern environment due to their extensive distribution throughout the soil ecosystem. Prophylactic applications of chlorpyrifos (CP) affect soil fertility, modify soil microbial community structure, and pose potential health risks to the nontarget organisms. Bioremediation through microbial metabolism is found to be an ecofriendly and cheaper process for CP removal from the environment. So far, various bacterial and fungal communities have been reported for CP and its metabolites degradation. Organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) and methyl parathion hydrolase (MPH) are crucial bacterial enzymes for CP degradation as they efficiently hydrolyze the unbreakable P-O and P = S bond. This review discusses the prospects of toxicity level, persistency, and harmful effects of CP on the environment. CP degradation mechanisms, metabolic pathways, and key enzymes, along with their structural details, are also featured. The highlights on molecular docking with OPH and MPH enzyme for CP show the best binding affinity with OPH; hence, it is an essential part of CP degradation. Simultaneously, metagenomic analysis of soil from contaminated agricultural lands and wastewater was analyzed with the goal to identify the dominant CP degraders and enzymes. The identification of potent degraders, key enzymes, and evaluation of microbial community dynamics upon pesticide exposure can be used as a warning for its dissemination and biomagnification into the food chain.