RESUMO
Over the last century, organotin compounds (OTCs) have sprawled over a vast spectrum of applications ranging from industrial to agricultural fields, interlacing with our surrounding environment and the ecosystem in an inseparable manner. The biocidal nature of OTCs, which has been exploited as the servient antifouling property, proved them to be pernicious eco-toxicants and a threat to the entire living system irrespective of the taxonomic hierarchy. Despite the recalcitrant nature of OTCs against chemical decontamination and photodegradation, nature has shown a providential method of their biodegradation by means of organotin-resistant microbes. Although the details of the microbial organotin biodegradation process remain nebulous, the cytochrome P450 (CYP450) family of enzymes has shown to possess the capability of OTC degradation. In this review, we discuss the deep-rooted toxicity problem of the organotin compounds on the biota and explore the plausible mechanistic plots of their enzymatic degradation, keeping the catalytic cycle of the CYP450 enzyme under the limelight. Leveraging the knowledge of CYP450 catalysis and the known organotin metabolites in nature, we attempt to cast transparency on the catalytic mechanism involved in organotin biodegradation, which remains largely elusive. Although several challenges have to be confronted for implementing the process of enzymatic degradation of OTCs in the real world, a sincere attempt will definitely be worth the ultimate greater good for averting the global toxicity problem related to organotin compounds.