10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 8 Issue 4 2017 (October - December) Organophosphate pesticides are commonly used in agriculture for pest control. The short and long-term exposures to Organophosphates induce inhibition of acetyl cholinesterase (AchE) activity, thus leading to nervous impairment in humans. This review records various aspects viz., organophosphates in soil, organophosphates toxicity, biodegradation of organophosphorus pesticides, bacterial degradation, enzymatic degradation of organophosphorus pesticides. The literature shows that there has been variation in lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus lessThan /i greaterThan , lessThan i greaterThan Arthrobacter lessThan /i greaterThan , lessThan i greaterThan Xanthomonas lessThan /i greaterThan and lessThan i greaterThan Actinomyces lessThan /i greaterThan population which indicates that OP pesticides had either stimulatory or inhibitory effects on different microbial groups. The bacterial species used for degradation are viz., lessThan i greaterThan Pseudomonas putida lessThan /i greaterThan , lessThan i greaterThan Acinetobacter rhizosphaerae Pseudomonas diminuta lessThan /i greaterThan MG and lessThan i greaterThan Flavobacterium lessThan /i greaterThan ATCC 27551, lessThan i greaterThan Nocardiodes simplex lessThan /i greaterThan lessThan i greaterThan Stenotrophomonas malthophilia, Proteus vulgaris, Vibrio metschinkouii, Serratia ficaria, Serratia spp.,Yersinia enterocolitica lessThan /i greaterThan . lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus licheniformis, Pseudomonas species, Staphylococcus species. lessThan /i greaterThan Inspite of this many catabolic plasmids have been found in species of lessThan i greaterThan Pseudomonas, Alcaligenes, Actinobacter, Flavobacterium, Klebsiella, Moraxella lessThan /i greaterThan and lessThan i greaterThan Arthrobacter, which lessThan /i greaterThan have degradative potential. These kind of ecofriendly bacteria can be used to encourage and motivate the farmers to use natural biological pesticides SANDHYA GOEL AND NARENDRA KUMAR Organophosphorus Pesticides, Soil, Bacterial Degradation, Enzymatic Degradation 228-236