Bacterial dehalogenases catalyse the cleavage of carbon-halogen bonds, which is a key step in aerobic mineralization pathways of many halogenated compounds that occur as environmental pollutants. There is a broad range of dehalogenases, which can be classified in different protein superfamilies and have fundamentally different catalytic mechanisms. Identical dehalogenases have repeatedly been d...

The chloropesticide toxaphene (Camphechlor, Melipax) has been used in high quantities since 1945 . Toxaphene has been classified as a persistent organohalogen pollutant (POP) and belongs to the “dirty dozen” . Due to its heavy use in the 1960s and 1970s, several environmental compartments were significantly contaminated with toxaphene. For instance, concentrations in polluted areas could exceed...

Following the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) meteoritic impact some 65 Myr ago, large portions of aboveground terrestrial biomass were burned. As a result, large amounts of various trace gases were injected to the atmosphere, inducing a wide range of effects on climate and ecosystems. Here, it is commented on the previously unaccounted for emission to the atmosphere of methyl bromide (CH3Br) and met...

Drug repositioning has been attracting increasingly attention for its advantages of reducing costs and risks. Statistics showed that around one quarter of the marketed drugs are organohalogens. However, no study has been reported, to the best of our knowledge, to aim at efficiently repositioning organohalogen drugs, which may be attributed to the lack of accurate halogen bonding scoring functio...

When we think of chlorine, we often relate it to the salt used in food preparation, chloride in the oceans, chlorine gas from swimming pools, and gaseous chlorofluorocarbons that have close links to the depletion of stratospheric ozone. We rarely think of thousands of chlorinated hydrocarbons that exist in the natural systems, several of which are highly toxic to humans (1). The C-Cl bond, comm...

The genome sequence of psychrophilic Shewanella sediminis revealed the presence of five putative reductive dehalogenases (Rdhs). We found that cell extracts of pyruvate/fumarate-grown S. sediminis cells catalysed reduced methyl viologen-dependent reductive dechlorination of tetrachloroethene (PCE) to trichloroethene (TCE) at a specific activity of approximately 1 nmol TCE min(-1) (mg protein)(-...

Sixty-four adult captive American kestrels (Falco sparverius) were exposed to a dietary source of halogenated dimethyl bipyrroles (HDBPs), a group of organohalogens proposed to have a natural origin. Adult kestrels were assigned to four treatment groups that were administered a different dose of HDBPs [high, 140 microg/(bird x d); medium, 4.3 microg/(bird x d); low, 0.13 microg/(bird x d); cont...

Higher house dust levels of PBDE flame retardants (FRs) have been reported in California than other parts of the world, due to the state's furniture flammability standard. However, changing levels of these and other FRs have not been evaluated following the 2004 U.S. phase-out of PentaBDE and OctaBDE. We analyzed dust collected in 16 California homes in 2006 and again in 2011 for 62 FRs and org...

BACKGROUND Organohalogen compounds (OHCs) are known to have neurotoxic effects on the developing brain. OBJECTIVE We investigated the influence of prenatal exposure to OHCs, including brominated flame retardants, on motor, cognitive, and behavioral outcome in healthy children of school age. METHODS This study was part of the prospective Groningen infant COMPARE (Comparison of Exposure-Effec...

K U R U N T H A C H A L A M K A N N A N , * , † M A S A H I D E K A W A N O , ‡ Y U J I K A S H I M A , § M I T S U A K I M A T S U I , § A N D J O H N P . G I E S Y † National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, Department of Zoology, Institute of Environmental Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, Department of Environment Conservation, Ehime University, Tarumi 3...