Wild soil fungi able to degrade the herbicide isoproturon

the herbicide isoproturon (ipu) is a strong contaminant due to it water solubility and low microbial degradation. environmental concerns arised from the worldwide use of this herbicide in conventional agriculture, urban areas and algicide in antifouling paints. several fungi have shown the ability to degrade ipu and its derivatives; however, hydroxylated metabolites were frequently detected in agricultural areas. the aims of this study were to isolate representatives fungi from polluted soils, to study their ipu-degradation potential and to identify the transformation products. aspergillus ochraceus, fusarium flocciferum, talaromyces helicus, acremonium strictum, mucor hiemalis, paecilomyces lilacinus and penicillium frequentans uptook the herbicide and produced significant amounts of diverse derivatives. the fungi produced 1-oh-ipu and 2-oh-ipu, being the source of the hydroxylated ipu-derivatives detected in environment. therefore, this study demonstrated that selected fungi could be used for the polluted soils bioremediation.