Research Product

Malathion is rapidly degraded in vitro by salt-marsh bacteria to malathion-monocarboxylic acid, malathion-dicarboxylic acid and various phosphothionates as a result of carboxyesterase cleavage. In addition, some expected phosphatase activity produces desmethyl-malathion, phosphotionates, 4-carbon dicarboxylic acids, and corresponding ethyl esters. In a simulated salt-marsh environment, malathion is degraded by the indigenous bacterial community. Numbers of bacteria capable of degrading malathion in the presence of additional nutrients increase in the sediments with increasing frequency of application and in the water column with the increasing level of treatment. Numbers of bacteria which degrade malathion as a sole carbon source are linked to the level of treatment in sediments and the frequency of treatment in the water column; however, these bacteria do not appear to play a significant role in the dissipation of malathion. I believe that frequency of treatment, increases numbers of malathion co-metabolizing bacteria which catalyze a more rapid dissipation of the compound, which results in fewer sole carbon degraders. The disappearance of malathion in the salt-marsh environment is influenced by both chemical and biological degradation; however, at temperatures below 26°C and salinities below 20 o/oo, chemical mechanisms appear to be of less importance than biological degradation.