Using Directed Enzyme Evolution for the Degradation of Organophosphate-Based Pesticides used in Agriculture

The use of pesticides for the control of insect populations has led to increased agricultural yield and reduced the spread of diseases caused by insects (Cooper & Dobson, 2007). However, the extensive use of pesticides, especially organophosphate (OP), raised the community concern as their toxicity is not limited to insects as these chemicals can have serious or lethal effects on human health (Marrs, 1993). Today there are still organophosphate permitted for agricultures uses. As these pesticide residues can remain behind in the crop after harvesting or storage, and make their way into our food chain, it is crucial to maintain a certain level of pesticides remaining specifically for the sake of sensitive populations such as children under the age of 5 years old(Landrigan, 2005). The conventional approaches for degradation are costly and may lead to the formation of several toxic intermediates. There is an unmet challenge to develop cost-effective ways to detect OPs and convert these chemicals into harmless compounds that are safe to human health. The objective for this project is to harness the catalytic power of designed and evolved enzymes and create green technologies for the decontamination of OPs residues in the environment and in food. We combine the use of protein rational design with directed enzyme evolution techniques to create both stable and broad specificity enzymes for the degradation of several OP based pesticides with the aim of developing enzymatically based decontamination agents that can be used pre or post-harvest for the benefit of agriculture industry, food marketing industry, and the general public as agriculture goods consumers.