Molecular biotechnology for the biodegradation of organofluorine compounds

Organofluorine compounds are of considerable concern due to their environmental persistence and human health effects. Their persistence stems from an inability of native microorganisms to metabolize them. Polyfluorinated compounds are unnatural, offer little nutritional benefit to microorganisms, and their breakdown releases toxic fluoride anion. Yet, the biological breakdown of dispersed polyfluorinated compounds would offer a compelling strategy for environmental remediation. In this context, molecular biotechnology is being pursued. The first required tools are methods for monitoring biodefluorination, often determining fluoride release by different methods. The use of those methods revealed fluoride toxicity as a major selection against biodefluorination. Despite that, microbial enzymes catalyzing defluorination of monofluorinated compounds are known and provide templates for bioengineering systems to handle polyfluorinated compounds. Whereas biodegradation often evolves in nature, effective biodegradation of perfluorinated chemicals may require laboratory evolution and engineering.