Glyphosate is a non-specific organophosphate pesticide, which finds widespread application in shielding crops against the weeds. Its high solubility in hydrophilic solvents, especially water and high mobility allows the rapid leaching of the glyphosate into the soil leading to contamination of groundwater and accumulation into the plant tissues, therefore intricating the elimination of the herbicides. Despite the widespread application, only a few percentages of the total applied glyphosate serve the actual purpose, dispensing the rest in the environment, thus resulting in reduced crop yields, low quality agricultural products, deteriorating soil fertility, contributing to water pollution, and consequently threatening human and animal life. This review gives an insight into the toxicological effects of the herbicide glyphosate and current approaches to track and identify trace amounts of this agrochemical along with its biodegradability and possible remediating strategies. Efforts have also been made to summarize the biodegradation mechanisms and catabolic enzymes involved in glyphosate metabolism.

Cell culture in shake flask and air-lift bioreactor was carried out to exploit the potential of Arnebia sp. for napthoquinone metabolite production. Cell suspension cultures of Arnebia were established from friable callus in liquid MS medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) (10 μM) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (5 μM). Growth kinetic studies were done by using settled cell volume and fresh/dry cell weight method. Suspension cultures were maintained by sub-culturing at 10 days interval. A two-stage culture system is employed using growth medium (GM) and modified M9 medium (production medium) for cell biomass and naphthoquinone pigment production, respectively. Results showed that cultivation of cells under dark conditions at room temperature (25 ± 2 °C) enhanced the cell biomass from 100 to 625 g l⁻¹. The pigment production was also found to be increased in dark conditions at room temperature. Alkaline pH found to have positive effect on pigment yield. In case of M9 medium constituents, absence of Na₂SO₄ does not affect the pigment yield. The current approaches have the cumulative effect to meet an increased level of (25.5 μg/ml) metabolite production in air-lift bioreactor.

Laboratory bench scaling was done and an average of 1.85 fold increase by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) optimization was obtained. It was found that the predicted value (4.96 IU/ml) obtained by RSM is in close accordance with observed activity 5.14 IU/ml. Endoglucanases are mainly induced by CMC while Wheat bran (natural substrate) exoglucanase is more active when induced by avicel and cellulose. Addition of substrate beyond a level caused inhibition of cellulase production. The molecular weight of protein as determined by SDS-PAGE is very similar to molecular weight of cellulase ofTrichoderma viride(T. viride) cellulase andTrichoderma reesei(T. reesei) endoglucanase.T. reeseiβ-glucosidase has high enzymatic activity on CMC substrate when compared withT. virideβ-glucosidase. Secondary structure analysed by using Circular Dichroism confirmed that composition of celluase system is very similar to other analysed species. The cellulase was found to be active in pH range of 4.8-5.5; while temperature range varied from 50°C to 70°C. Although the enzymatic activity produced by mutants were lesser than the parent, but in one case mutants ofTrichodermareesei’s BGL has shown higher activity on cellulose.