The excessive use of herbicides is a major cause of many environmental problems. The use of isoproturon herbicide as a weed controller has been a common practice globally. Phytoremediation technology can help in cleaning up polluted areas. In this paper the ability of CYP1A2 transgenic A. thaliana plants in the phytoremediation of isoproturon herbicides has been investigated. We tested the capability of P450-1A2 overexpression on the detoxification and degradation of isoproturon. We explored the toxic effect of isoproturon on the plant phenotypic characteristics, including the primary root length, rosette diameter, and fresh, dry weight for transgenic and wild type A. thaliana. The results revealed that no morphological changes appeared on CYP1A2 transgenic plants with a high tolerance to isoproturon herbicide applications either via foliar spraying or supplementation of the growth medium. Deleterious effects were observed on the morphological characteristics of plants of the wild type grown in soil under different treatments with isoproturon. The transgenic A. thaliana plants exhibited a vigorous growth even at high doses of isoproturon treatments. In contrast, the growth of the wild type was significantly impaired with doses above 50 µM isoproturon. The transgenic A. thaliana plants expressing P450-1A2 were able to metabolize the phenylurea herbicide isoproturon. Therefore, this method can be determined as a potential bioremediation agent.
Keywords: CYP1A2; isoproturon; phytoremediation; plant growth; transgenic A. thaliana.