SHORT CONTRIBUTION T. KrzysÂko-L  upicka á W. Strof á K. Kubs M. Skorupa á P. Wieczorek á B. Lejczak P. Kafarski The ability of soil-borne fungi to degrade organophosphonate carbon-to-phosphorus bonds Received: 14 May 1997 / Received revision: 10 June 1997 / Accepted: 14 June 1997 Abstract The ability of a wide variety of soil-borne fungal strains to degrade four structurally dierent com- pounds containing PAC bonds, namely the naturally occurring amino acid ciliatine, the popular herbicide glyphosate, phosphonoacetic acid and 2-amino-3- phosphonopropionic acid, was studied in order to show that soil fungi may play an important role in the bio- degradation of organophosphonates. Most of the strains appeared to utilize ciliatine as the sole source of phos- phorus for growth. Only a limited number of strains were able to grow on the other phosphonates used in this work. The strains of Trichoderma harzianum, Scopula- riopsis sp. and Aspergillus niger chosen for more detailed study show the ability to degrade ciliatine, glyphosate and also amino(3-methoxyphenyl)mehtylphosphonic acid eectively. Introduction Organophosphonates are compounds characterized by the possession of a carbon atom covalently bonded to a phosphorus atom (PAC bond). This bond occurs in an increasing number of industrial, agricultural, medical and household-cleaning products (Fest and Schmidt 1982; Egli 1988). Consequently thousands of tonnes of these xenobiotics are introduced into the environment each year. Unlike the majority of biogenic organo- phosphorus compounds that contain the PAOAC link- ages, phosphonates are chemically inert, being strongly resistant to chemical (hydrolytic, thermal, as well as photochemical) degradation (Freedman and Doak 1957). Thus, the potential for removal of these envi- ronmental phosphonates would be low, if they were not able to be removed by phosphonate-degrading micro- organisms. Indeed, it is well established that the ability to catabolise organophosphonate is widespread among bacteria (for a review see Ghisalba et al. 1987). Taking into consideration the fact that organophosphonates are most probably degraded by fungi, our knowledge of the fate of these compounds in the environment is incom- plete. This is due to the lack of studies on biodegrada- tion of these compounds by fungal species. The only exceptions are our recent reports on the degradation of some representatives of these compounds by Penicillium citrinum (ZboinÂska et al. 1992) and Penicillium notatum (Bujacz et al. 1995). In this paper we report the ability of 26 soil-borne fungal strains to utilize structurally diverse organo- phosphonates as a sole source of phosphorus for growth. Materials and methods Microorganisms Soil-borne fungal strains were either isolated from sandy/clayey soil (Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma have, Sepedonium sp., Scopulariopsis sp., Botryotrichum sp., Acremonium sp., Aspergillus niger, Penicillium sp., Gliocladium catenulatum, Fusarium avanaceum, Alternaria sp., Stachobotrys chartarum, Botrytis cinerea, Mucor mucedo, Rhizopus niger) by means of standard procedures (Martin 1950) or were a generous gift from Dr. Regina Stempniewicz in the Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology of the University of Agriculture of Wrocl aw (Trichoderma viride II, Trichoderma viride II A3g, Trichoderma vi- ride III, Verticillium II 80, Penicillium 6B, Pseudocecrosporella herpotrichoides, Stachobotrys 1 A1 G, Mucor mucedo 39C9, Mucor II 90) and are available upon request. Taxonomic investigation Isolated strains were cultivated on solid malt extract/agar, steep agar and Czapek media and identi®ed according to Barnett (1960), Rifai (1969) and Garrett (1970). Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (1997) 48: 549±552 Ó Springer-Verlag 1997 T. KrzysÂko-L  upicka á W. Strof á K. Kubs á M. Skorupa P. Wieczorek Institute of Chemistry, University of Opole, ul. Oleska 32, PL-45 052 Opole, Poland B. Lejczak á P. Kafarski (&) Institute of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Technical University of Wrocl aw, Wybreze _ ze WyspianÂskiego 27, PL-50-370 Wrocl aw, Poland Fax: (+4871) 22-40-64 e-mail: kafarski@kchf.ch.pwr.wroc.pl