Summary: Epidemiological researches carried out by World Health Organization (WHO) established that the population of areas polluted by pesticides often fall ill with oncological diseases, allergies and other pathologies,  immune and reproductive functions are destroyed; children are taken ill with iron-deficiency anemia, tuberculosis, pathologies of respiratory way, complicated viral infections; new-borns often have inborn pathologies. It is also very important that the negative influence of pesticides on organism can be not revealed at once and as a result a serious illness can be developed.
The latter notion is verified by the recent investigations that show that pesticides can induce neurodegenerative pathology such as Parkinson's disease. In this case, at a glance pesticides cause insignificant abnormality: they block one of the complexes of mitochondrial respiratory chain, but that dysfunction is followed by generation of oxygen active species in large amount. The further result of this are quite serious neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, while determining the toxic dose of pesticides, it is necessary to consider the factor of effect of pesticides on process of mitochondrial respiration as well.
The safety use of pesticides also depends on obeying the instructions. Nowadays customers are barely informed how to use the pesticides which are in common use in Georgia. The instruction includes information about doses of purchased preparation and against which pest it is to be used. At best, a customer gets a high quality booklet together with the purchased pesticide. But these booklets are mainly for advertising and doesn’t contain any information about the measures to be taken (rubber gloves, safety goggles, hat, respirator, how to act in case of intoxication, how to utilize wastes, etc.). Obviously, this situation increases the number of dangers caused by pesticides.
The goal of the presented project is to study the effect of pesticides commonly used in Georgia on detoxification and energetic systems of plants and animal organisms; elaboration and distribution of the recommendations for their safety use.
During the realization of this project pesticides commonly used in Georgia (Ridomil Gold, Akrobat, Stroby, Tercel, Rex duo, Bi-58, Fastac, Karate Zeon, Actellic and Dianat) will be tested.
The following tasks will be carried out:
Task 1: The study of biodegradation processes of pesticides – for each pesticide the process of biodegradation by plant and animal detoxification system will be studied; basic metabolites will be established; the enzymes participating in process of biodegradation and mechanisms of their regulation will be revealed.
Task 2: The study of effect of pesticides on mitochondrial respiration _ for each pesticide, the influence of pesticides and their metabolites on functioning of animal and plant mitochondria will be studied; the concentration of pesticides that is harmless for cell and tools for avoiding the negative influence of pesticides will be established.
Task 3: The elaboration of rules for safety use of pesticides _ according to the results obtained in the previous tasks and found information, the rules for safety use of pesticides will be elaborated; the information will be periodically published on the web-site www.labiox.ge; informational booklets will be printed and distributed to interested organizations and private persons.
Results of the project contain novelty both scientific and practical standpoints.
Scientific significance is as follows:

• Dysfunction of mitochondria caused by pesticides and metabolites formed during their biodegradation will be studied; this abnormality will be estimated by the state of mitochondrial control.
• The role of enzymes participating in transformation of individual pesticides and the ways of regulation of detoxification process will be established.
• The tools (e.g. using antioxidants) for inhibiting generation of free radicals and enhancing detoxification of pesticides will be established.

Practical results are the following:
People employed in agrarian field will be able to get complete information about the pesticides which they use in agricultural works. This information will describe not only the instruction of using the pesticides but also the risks for health that follow the use of individual chemicals and safety measures for minimizing these risks.
For easing to access, this information will be distributed as informational booklets to governmental organisations that control the import of pesticides in Georgia; legal entities and physical persons that distribute pesticides or are employed in agricultural sector. It will be also published on the Lab web-page (www.labiox.ge).
The work group members accomplishing proposed project have great experience in studying of the detoxification ability of plants, the pathways and the mechanism of organic toxicant transformation, the investigation of mitochondrial processes. It has been published the research and review articles of project participants in prestige international editions, also the monographs in Georgian, Russian (Moscow, “Nauka”) and English (Berlin, Heidelberg, “Springer”).
Work group members participated in the 5 International research projects, which concerned to the elaboration of remediation methods for polluted environment. Thus, the methodological approaches, results and experience of these projects will be partially used in the proposed project. For project implementation the work group will use the facilities and equipments of Biological Oxidation Laboratory of Durmishidze Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology that doesn’t need important renovating.