Phytoremediation of the herbicide simazine by p450 transgenic tobacco plants

Weed control by herbicides has helped us to create the greenrevolution and to provide food for at least the majority of human beings living today. However, some herbicides remain in the environment and pose an ecological problem.Cytochromes P450 are ubiquitously distributed enzymes, which possess high complexity and display a broad field of activity. They are hemoproteins converting a broad variety of substrates and catalyzing a variety of interesting chemical reactions. This enzThe first aim of the present work was to examine the catalytic activity of the human P450 isozymes CYP1A1, CYP1A2 and CYP3A4 expressed in tobacco cell cultures regarding the herbicide simazine.First, metabolism studies were executed with 14C-labelled simazine using non-transgenic and Cyp1a1-, Cyp1a2- and Cyp3a4- transgenic tobacco cell cultures available at the institute. According to HPLC analysis, the results proved that simazine was complete