Glyphosate May Affect Human Gut Microbiota

[Julieanne]

University of Turku
November 20 2020

Glyphosate is the most commonly used broad-spectrum herbicide. Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland have developed a new bioinformatics tool to predict if a microbe, e.g. a human gut bacterium, is sensitive to glyphosate.
"Glyphosate targets an enzyme called EPSPS in the shikimate pathway. This enzyme is crucial to synthesizing three essential amino acids. Based on the structure of the EPSPS enzyme, we are able to classify 80-90% of microbial species into sensitive or resistant to glyphosate," says Docent Pere Puigbò, developer of the new bioinformatics tool.


Read more: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201120095858.htm

[Julieanne]

Islander, there have been so many articles referring to the gut microbiota, I'm wondering if you can make a new category. I am never sure where to post them!

[Islander]

I don't think a new category is necessary, and here's why: every reference I just ran through has linked our microbiota to very specific conditions, and consequently the posts have been placed in those categories. Since microbiota have a such a varied and widespread influence on so many organs and systems, I think that their placement in the past has been specific to those conditions and thus, exactly right where they belong. A good question, Julie, but I think the information is appropriate in the way it's been treated to date.