Abstract
The metabolism of the organophosphonate herbicide glyphosate was investigated in 163 environmental bacterial strains, obtained by a variety of isolation strategies from sites with or without prior exposure to the compound. Isolates able to use glyphosate as sole phosphorus source were more common at a treated site, but much less abundant than those capable of using the glyphosate metabolite aminomethyl-phosphonic acid (AMPA). Nevertheless, all 26 strains found to metabolise the herbicide did so via an initial cleavage of its carbon-phosphorus bond so via an initial cosine; no evidence for its metabolism or co-metabolism to AMPA was obtained.
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Dick, R.E., Quinn, J.P. Glyphosate-degrading isolates from environmental samples: occurrence and pathways of degradation. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 43, 545–550 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00218464
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00218464