Hindawi Publishing Corporation Biotechnology Research International Volume 2013, Article ID 927361, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/927361 Research Article Chiral Phosphinate Degradation by the Fusarium Species: Scope and Limitation of the Process Natalia Kmiecik, Magdalena Klimek-Ochab, MaBgorzata BrzeziNska-Rodak, Paulina Majewska, and Ewa gymaNczyk-Duda Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wybrze˙ ze Wyspia´ nskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland Correspondence should be addressed to Ewa ˙ Zyma´ nczyk-Duda; ewa.zymanczyk-duda@pwr.wroc.pl Received 6 August 2013; Revised 29 September 2013; Accepted 2 October 2013 Academic Editor: Gabriel A. Monteiro Copyright © 2013 Natalia Kmiecik et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Biodegradable capacities of fungal strains of Fusarium oxysporum (DSMZ 2018) and Fusarium culmorum (DSMZ 1094) were tested towards racemic mixture of chiral 2-hydroxy-2-(ethoxyphenylphosphinyl) acetic acid—a compound with two stereogenic centres. e effectiveness of decomposition was dependent on external factors such as temperature and time of the process. Optimal conditions of complete mineralization were established. Both Fusarium species were able to biodegrade every isomer of tested compound at 30 ∘ C, but F. culmorum required 10 days and F. oxysporum 11 days to accomplish the process, which was continuously monitored using the 31 P NMR technique. 1. Introduction Organophosphonates are compounds characterized by the presence of a carbon atom covalently bound to a phosphorus atom. Such compounds are very stable and resistant to ther- molysis, chemolysis, photolysis, and biochemical decomposi- tion. [1] Phosphonic acids and their derivatives are molecules of interest due to their structural differentiation and great industrial importance. ey are used as crop protection agents (weed control) in water treatment, in metal processing, and as flame-proofing agents [1]. e very valuable group of phosphonate derivatives are hydroxyphosphonates because they are known for their varied biological activities [2]. ey act as enzyme inhibitors, antibacterial and antifungal factors, herbicides, antitumor or antiviral drugs, and mostly as molecules of defined absolute configuration. e use of such compounds applies in many consequences, mostly because of the extreme stability of mentioned P-C bond and the steric structure of the molecule. Increasing concentration of phosphonates derivatives in the environment has focused the attention of scientists on the problems with utilization of such pollutants. Biodegradation is a method of choice and represents undoubtedly an environmentally friendly solution. Some of the soil microorganisms have developed the capability to mineralize and biodegrade such molecules in order to acquire energy and nutrients [3–5]. e effectiveness of such degradation is dependent on several factors, including the chemical and steric structure of compounds and environ- mental conditions of the process. While bacterial degradation of phosphonic compounds has been thoroughly addressed and reviewed [3, 6], only few, recent works have focused on the use of fungal strains for degradation on such compounds [7–10]. is is interesting because there are advantages in using fungi for bioremediation as they possess extracellular enzymes and larger surface area for absorption and their mycelia provide deeper penetration of the environment [11]. In this work, the ability of Fusarium oxysporum (DSMZ 2018) and Fusarium culmorum (DSMZ 1094) to mineralize 1-hydroxy-2-(ethoxyphenylphosphinyl) acetic acid was stud- ied. is is the first study, which concerns the biodegradation of chiral hydroxy phosphinates. e previously reported bacterial mineralization considered only not-chiral phos- phonates as substrates [12]. e present study also allowed for evaluating the correlation between the effectiveness of fungal biodegradation of chosen compound and the process parameters (time and temperature) and, what is important,