TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preferred Method: In (M1) or (M3), the HMPA degrading microbe is ATCC PTA-3649. In (M4), the biogenic FPA derivative is produced by the microbe ATCC PTA-3649. WIDER DISCLOSURE - Novel microbes that have HMPA degrading activity are disclosed.    EXAMPLE - 1.5 liter aerobic stirred batch bioreactor was seeded on May 12, 1998 with fresh mixed liquor collected from the biosystem used to treat glyphosate manufacturing wastes. The reactor was maintained at room temperature and pH 7.5+/-0.5. Dissolved oxygen levels of 2.0-5.0 mg/L were achieved using an air stone. The bioreactor was fed in inorganic salts medium containing hydroxymethylphosphonic acid (HMPA) as a sole source of a carbon and energy. The bioreactor was operated from May through December and HMPA-loading was increased stepwise to enrich for HMPA-degrading microorganisms. The bioreactor developed HMPA-degrading activity after 10 days of operation and showed complete loss of HMPA after 18 days of operation. The bioreactor maintained levels of HMPA degradation of 96 to greater than 99% as HMPA loading was increased from 67-300 kg/M3/day for a seven-month period from May through December. In response to the observed increase in HMPA-degrading activity in the mixed culture bioreactor, several microbial plating and enrichment studies were conducted to isolate pure cultures of HMPA-degrading microorganism from the mixed culture reactor. In microbial plating studies, bioreactor samples were diluted in sterile L-salts and spread plated onto L-salts sugar, L-salts agar plus 5,000 mg/L HMPA and L-salts agar plus, 2,000 mg/L HMPA. Spread plates were incubated for two weeks at 25degreesC. In addition, microbial isolations were conducted in liquid tube cultures containing L-salts plus or minus HMPA. Microbial growth was compared between L-salts and L-salts plus HMPA. Distinct microbial isolates appearing to grow on HMPA were subcultured on agar plates containing L-salts agar plus 5,000 mg/L HMPA and 5 mg/L yeast extract. The first three attempts showed no evidence of enhanced microbial growth on media supplemented with HMPA. However, the fourth microbial plating study detected enhanced microbial growth on media containing HMPA after two weeks of incubation at ambient temperature. Eight distinct bacterial isolates, designated 1B-8B, were selected from the agar plates based on colony morphology, color and cellular morphology. These selected cultures were isolation-streaked on L-salts agar containing HMPA and YE to check for purity. It was determined that bacterial isolate 7B was a mix of two strains which were isolated and designated 7B(1) and 7B(2). The mixed sample HMPA-M1 was deposited in ATCC and was provided a accession number of 3649. The nine bacterial isolates were incubated in L-salts containing 1000 mg/L HMPA and assayed for HMPA-degrading activity. A significant level of HMPA degradation was detected in several of the bacterial cultures. Formylphosphonic (FPA) production using the mixed microbial cultures was done as follows. The high level of HMPA degradation observed by the mixed microbial culture suggested that significant levels of biogenic FPA, the hypothesized intermediate, may be produced by these cultures. Since it was recognized that FPA levels were likely to be low due to rapid further degradation, glycine was utilized as an aldehyde-trap to slow further degradation of FPA. The experiment was conducted with the HMPA-degrading mixed microbial culture samples at an HMPA exposure concentration of 360 mg/L and glycine was added to the media (1:1 molar ratio to HMPA) as an aldehyde trap to bind any biogenic FPA. In addition, one sample was incubated with HMPA and glycine was hydrogenated to potentially convert any biogenic FPA directly to N-phosphonomethylgycine. Biogenic FPA was detected in samples one and two at concentrations ranging from 17-65 mg/L after 6 and 24 hours of incubation. FPA was also detected at similar concentrations in sample three which lacked glycine as an aldehyde trap. In all three samples, the highest levels of FPA were detected after 6 hours of incubation and levels dropped later in the experiment. this suggested that FPA occurred as a transient intermediate during high rates of HMPA biodegradation and FPA underwent rapid bacterial degradation when HMPA levels were depleted. No HMPA or FPA were detected in a control sample not exposed to HMPA. These results clearly showed that FPA was produced as a bacterial oxidation product of HMPA and proved the concept that FPA can be produced enzymatically from HMPA.