Title

Comparative analysis of organophosphate degrading enzymes from diverse species

Authors

Amna Salman¹, Atefeh Taherian Fard¹, Arshan Nasir¹, Habib Bokhari^1**

Affiliation

¹Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Park Road, Chak Shahzad, Islamabad, Pakistan

E-mail*

habib@comsats.edu.pk; * Corresponding author

Phone

+92-300-512-7684

Fax

0092-051-4442805

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

received  January2, 2010; revised April13, 2010; accepted  June8, 2010; published online July 6, 2010

Different types of organophosphorous compounds constitute most potent pesticides. These chemicals attack the nervous system of living organisms causing death. Different organisms produce enzymes to degrade these chemicals. These enzymes are present in simple microorganisms from archaea, bacteria to complex eukaryotes like humans. A comparison of representative eight shortlisted enzymes involved in the degradation and inactivation of organophosphates from a wide range of organisms was performed to infer the basis of their common functionality. There is little sequence homology in these enzymes which results in divergent tertiary structures. The only feature that these enzymes seem to share is their amino acid composition. However, structural analysis has shown no significant similarities among this functionally similar group of organophosphate degrading enzymes.

Keywords

Pesticide, Organophosphates, Organophosphatases, Common functionality, Sequence and Structure comparison.

Citation

Salman et al. Bioinformation 5(2): 67-72 (2010)

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License