Detoxication of organophosphorus (OP) compounds is affected by genetic and environmental modulation of a number of enzymes involved in the process. For organophosphorothioate insecticides, different P450 isozymes and variants carry out two reactions that have quite different consequences; (1) they bioactivate their parent compounds to highly toxic oxon forms that are many times more toxic than the parent compounds, and (2) concurrently, they dearylate the parent OP compounds, generating much less toxic metabolites. The ratios at which these different P450s carry out bioactivation versus dearylation differ among the P450 isozymes. The detoxication of the oxon forms of diazinon and chlorpyrifos is achieved by hydrolysis to the respective aromatic alcohols and diethyl phosphates primarily by paraoxonase 1 (PON1), a plasma enzyme tightly associated with high-density lipoprotein particles and also found in liver. Stoichiometric binding to other targets also contributes to the detoxication of these oxons. PON1 is polymorphically distributed in human populations with an amino acid substitution (Gln/Arg) at position 192 of this 354-amino acid protein (the initiator Met residue is cleaved on maturation) that determines the catalytic efficiency of hydrolysis of some substrates. In addition to the variable catalytic efficiency determined by the position 192 amino acid, protein levels of PON1 vary by as much as 15-fold among individuals with the same PON1(192) genotype (Q/Q; Q/R; R/R). The generation of PON1 null mice and transgenic mice, expressing each of the human PON1(192) alloforms in place of mouse PON1, has allowed for the examination of the physiological function of the PON1(192) alloforms in OP detoxication. Sensitivity to diazoxon exposure is primarily determined by the plasma level of PON1, whereas for chlorpyrifos oxon exposure, both the plasma PON1 level and the position 192 amino acid are important--PON1(R192) is more efficient in inactivating chlorpyrifos oxon than is PON1(Q192). The availability of PON1 null mice provides an opportunity to examine the contribution of other enzymes in the OP detoxication pathways without PON1 interference.