Synthetic chemicals, degradation

Boxall ABA, Sinclair CJ, Fenner K, Kolpin DW, Maund SJ (2004) When synthetic chemicals degrade in the environment. Environ Sci Technol 38 369A-375A... 

Aerobic, Anaerobic, and Combined Systems. The vast majority of in situ bioremediations ate conducted under aerobic conditions because most organics can be degraded aerobically and more rapidly than under anaerobic conditions. Some synthetic chemicals are highly resistant to aerobic biodegradation, such as highly oxidized, chlorinated hydrocarbons and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Examples of such compounds are tetrachloroethylene, TCE, benzo(a)pyrene [50-32-8] PCBs, and pesticides. 

As many natural and synthetic /3-lactams bear 3-acylamino substituents, the corresponding free amines or protected forms thereof are versatile synthetic intermediates. They may be prepared in several ways, for example by deacylation of the 7-amido group in naturally occurring penicillins by enzymic or chemical means. Chemical degradation usually involves conversion of the amide to a chloroimidate followed by cleavage with aqueous alcohols (75S547 p. 560, 78T1731 p. 1753). 

That syntheses could be achieved by reversal of degradation processes was considered possible at that time, since, by definition, all chemical reactions are reversible. However, it gradually became apparent that synthetic and degradative processes in biochemistry in vivo were distinct, so that a process could only proceed in one direction. 

Modem concretes often incorporate a mixture of chemical and mineral admixtures, each of which may interact with the various constituents of cements and influence cement hydration reactions. The admixture-cement interactions may in fact be viewed as the reaction between two complex chemical systems - the multicomponent, multiphasic inorganic materials in the cement and the organic compounds of multicomponent admixture systems. For example, lignosulfonate water-reducers are intrinsically complex mixtures of chemical compounds derived from the chemical degradation of lignin, while synthetic admixtures such as superplasticizers contain species with a broad distribution of molecular weights, reaction products, or other chemicals added for a specific purpose [125]. The performance of an admixture in concrete is highly dependent on many... 

So why do microbes possess enzymes capable of degrading synthetic chemicals... 

Abeles and associates showed that when dioldehydratase (Table 16-1) catalyzes the conversion of l,2-[l-3H]propanediol to propionaldehyde, tritium appears in the coenzyme as well as in the final product. When 3H-containing coenzyme is incubated with unlabeled propanediol, the product also contains 3H, which was shown by chemical degradation to be exclusively on C-5 . Synthetic 5 -deoxyadenosyl coenzyme containing 3H in the 5 position transferred 3H to product. Most important, using a mixture of propanediol and ethylene glycol, a small amount of inter-molecular transfer was demonstrated that is, 3H was transferred into acetaldehyde, the product of dehydration of ethylene glycol. Similar results were also obtained with ethanolamine ammonia-lyase 399... 

It is evident, however, that the use of phage endoglycosidases can facilitate the production of series of saccharides otherwise unobtainable through either chemical degradation or synthetic procedures. Below we will illustrate with some examples the use of these saccharides as antigens as well as haptens in immunogens. 

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