Biodegradation and biotransformation of organofluorine compounds

The carbon-fluorine bond is one of the strongest in nature, and the increasing use of organofluorine compounds in agriculture, human and veterinary medicine, and industry has raised concerns about their fate in the environment. Microorganisms can degrade organofluorine compounds, either via specific enzymatic hydrolysis of the C-F bond, or through transformation by catabolic enzymes with broad substrate specificities. Here our current understanding of organofluorine catabolism in microorganisms is summarised.