Question

Herbicides can undergo microbial dealkylation.

(a) True

(b) False

This question was posed to me in an international level competition.

I'd like to ask this question from Microbial Transformations of Pesticides topic in section Microbial Transformations of Pesticides of Environmental Biotechnology

Answer 1

Right answer is (a) True

For explanation: Herbicides can undergo microbial dealkylation in the O-linked side chains and hence, these categories of pesticides can undergo the process of dealkylation using various microorganisms in the soil. The alkyl groups attached the pesticides are usually removed by the process of O-dealkylation.