Some pesticides such as organochlorines are of critical environmental concern because they are highly persistent due to their stable chemical nature. As a consequence, even after banning, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and endosulfan can be detected at concentrations above permissible limits. Moreover, classical pesticide degradation of these compounds using physiochemical processes is limited. Alternatively, biodegradation using microorganisms isolated in contaminated sites appears promising. For instance, the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens degrades aldrin by 94.8%, and the fungus Ganoderma lucidum can bring down the levels of lindane by 75.5%. In addition, the toxicity is reduced by enzymes that perform oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis, dehydrogenation, dehalogenation and decarboxylation. Then, the metabolites are further degraded by mineralisation and cometabolism. The biodegradation process can be manipulated by applying techniques such as bioattenuation, bioaugmentation and biostimulation. This article discusses the latest advances in microbial degradation of recalcitrant pesticides.

一些农药，例如有机氯，由于其稳定的化学性质而具有很高的持久性，因此对环境至关重要。结果，即使在禁令之后，仍可以以高于允许极限的浓度检测到二氯二苯基三氯乙烷和硫丹。而且，使用物理化学方法对这些化合物进行经典农药降解是有限的。备选地，使用在污染部位分离的微生物进行生物降解似乎是有希望的。例如，荧光假单胞菌可将艾氏剂降解94.8％，而灵芝则可 可使林丹的含量降低75.5％。另外，通过执行氧化，还原，水解，脱氢，脱卤和脱羧的酶可以降低毒性。然后，代谢物通过矿化和新陈代谢进一步降解。可以通过应用诸如生物衰减，生物增强和生物刺激的技术来操纵生物降解过程。本文讨论了难降解农药在微生物降解方面的最新进展。