With its advantages of high efficiency, high selectivity and broad spectrum, diphenyl ether herbicides have become a class of herbicides with a wide range of applications, numerous types and huge amounts of use worldwide. The massive and unregulated use of diphenyl ether herbicides has led to their accumulation in soil and water bodies, altering the structure of soil microbial communities and causing huge economic losses by causing damage to sensitive crops in subsequent crops. Meanwhile, it will also accumulate in the food chain, inducing potential hazards to non-target organisms such as aquatic animals and human beings. Therefore, the importance of developing green removal strategies for diphenyl ether herbicides in polluted environments is increasing. Currently, microbial degradation technology has a broad application prospect due to its simple operation, safety and less likely to cause secondary pollution. A variety of Pseudomonas and Bacillus species have been found to efficiently degrade diphenyl ether herbicides, but fewer studies have been conducted on fungi and actinomycetes. Based on this, this paper summarizes the characteristics of the diphenyl ether herbicide family, the mechanism of toxicity. Microbial resources for degrading diphenyl ether herbicides, degradation pathways and the molecular biological basis of the degradation process are outlined. The aim of this paper is to have a more comprehensive understanding of diphenyl ether herbicides and to provide a research direction for in-depth study of treatment strategies for diphenyl ether herbicide residues in the real environment and discovery of more relevant biodegradable resources.

Earthworms can expedite di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) degradation in soils, but limited information is available on the key DEHP-degradation pathways and related genes during the vermicomposting process. In this study, DEHP degradation, degradation-related genes and bac-terial communities were investigated by metagenomic analysis. DEHP degradation efficiency was significantly and 65.69% higher in vermicomposting treatment than natural soils. Earthworm supplement remarkably increased the contents of humic acid, humus and fulvic acid in soils. Both humic acid and earthworm gut positively stimulated soil microbes potentially responsible for DEHP degradation. Betaprotebacteria, Acidobacteria, Variovorax, Hydrogenophaga, Limnobacter, Ramlibacter, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Paracoccus and Achromobacter significantly contributed to DEHP degradation pathways. From functional gene analysis, there were remarkable differences in dominant DEHP degradation pathways between soils (catechol pathway), earthworm cast (protocatechuate pathway), and earthworm gut (protocatechuate and catechol pathways). Our findings proposed two possible mechanisms of earthworms in accelerating DEHP degradation, stimulating the activities of indigenous degraders to augment the catechol pathway in soils and providing an extra protocatechuate pathway in earthworm gut. This study, for the first time, offers new insights into the impacts of vermicomposting on DEHP degradation genes and path-ways, providing valuable scientific evidence for improving DEHP bioremediation in contaminated agricultural soils.