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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., Aug 1995, 2905-2910, Vol 61, No. 8
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology

Organophosphonate Utilization by the Wild-Type Strain of Penicillium notatum

B Bujacz, P Wieczorek, T Krzysko-Lupicka, Z Golab, B Lejczak and P Kavfarski
Institute of Chemistry, University of Opole, ul. Oleska 32, 45-052 Opole, and Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, and Institute of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Technical University of Wroclaw, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland

We studied the biodegradation of compounds containing phosphorus-to-carbon bonds by using a wild-type strain of Penicillium notatum. The substrate specificity of this strain was studied, and we found that it is able to utilize structurally diverse organophosphonates as sole sources of phosphorus. This ability seems to be inducible, as indicated by the presence of a lag phase during growth. A popular herbicide, glyphosate, inhibited fungal growth, but it was also degraded by the fungus if it was applied in sublethal doses. This indicates that P. notatum may play an important role in biodegradation of organophosphonates. The strain which we used did not metabolize any of the phosphonates which we tested when they were used as sole carbon or nitrogen sources.