2026-10-14T06:23:16Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34001821 2026-09-26T03:12:34Z category_4 category_7 category_8 category_12 category_14 category_19 category_873 category_133 portal_63 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Chemical Structure Controls Soil Biotransformation Kinetics of Bacillus Lipopeptide Biopesticides Richard Gruseck (12975070) Thilo Hofmann (1297491) Michael Zumstein (14134396) Biochemistry Medicine Microbiology Cell Biology Molecular Biology Pharmacology Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified Plant Biology transformed substantially faster soil biotransformation kinetics remains poorly understood cyclization affect biotransformation assessed biotransformation kinetics amino acid sequence alkyl chain length 6 – 67 5 – 15 1 – 8 poorly bioavailable fraction three tested soils 2 </ sub substantial fraction agricultural soils ∼ 45 ∼ 110 strong effect spiked amount results revealed representative set reported links possibly also indicating formation improved biodegradability hrms analyses fastest degradation emerging class chemical structure 100 days ), followed Bacillus lipopeptides (surfactins, iturins, and fengycins) are an emerging class of biopesticides. However, their fate in agricultural soils, and specifically how variations in the chemical structure such as alkyl chain length, amino acid sequence, and cyclization affect biotransformation, remains poorly understood. Here, we assessed biotransformation kinetics and pathways of a representative set of lipopeptides by coupling laboratory soil incubation experiments with HPLC-HRMS analyses. Half-lives varied strongly across lipopeptide families, with fastest degradation for iturins (1–8 d), followed by fengycins (5–15 d) and surfactins (6–67 d). In one of the three tested soils, surfactins exhibited biphasic removal with a substantial fraction (i.e., ∼21% of the spiked amount) remaining after >100 days of incubation, indicating formation of a poorly bioavailable fraction. Additionally, our results revealed a strong effect of the alkyl chain length for certain lipopeptides, with a half-life increase per additional CH₂ unit up to ∼45% for iturins and ∼110% for surfactins. Lastly, we report that linearized surfactins were transformed substantially faster than cyclic surfactins. Together, the reported links between chemical structure and soil biotransformation kinetics can inform the selection, and possibly also the (re)design, of lipopeptide biopesticides for improved biodegradability in agricultural soils. 2026-09-25T00:00:00Z Dataset Dataset 10.1021/acs.est.6c06707.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Chemical_Structure_Controls_Soil_Biotransformation_Kinetics_of_Bacillus_Lipopeptide_Biopesticides/34001821 CC BY-NC 4.0