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Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access published online on February 7, 2008
Plant and Cell Physiology, doi:10.1093/pcp/pcn021
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Biochemical bases for a widespread tolerance of cyanobacteria to the phosphonate herbicide glyphosate

Giuseppe Forlani1,*, Mauro Pavan1, Magdalena Gramek1,2, Pawe? Kafarski2,3 and Jacek Lipok2

1 Department of Biology and Evolution, University of Ferrara, Italy
2 Department of Chemistry, University of Opole, Poland
1 Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Wroc?aw University of Technology, Poland

*Author for correspondence: Prof. Giuseppe Forlani, Department of Biology & Evolution, University of Ferrara via L. Borsari 46, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy Tel: +39-0532-455311; Fax: +39-0532-249761, Email: flg{at}unife.it


  Abstract

Possible non-target effects of the widely-used, non-selective herbicide glyphosate were examined in six cyanobacterial strains, and the basis of their resistance was investigated. All cyanobacteria showed a remarkable tolerance to the herbicide up to millimolar levels. Two of them were found to possess an insensitive form of glyphosate target, the shikimate pathway enzyme 5-enol-pyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthase. Four strains were able to use the phosphonate as the only phosphorus source. Low uptake rates were measured only under P-deprivation. Experimental evidence for glyphosate metabolization was obtained also in strains apparently unable to use the phosphonate. Results suggest that various mechanisms may concur in providing cyanobacterial strains with herbicide tolerance. Data account also for their widespread ability to metabolize the phosphonate. However, such capability seems limited by low cell permeability to glyphosate, and is promptly repressed when inorganic phosphate is available.

Keywords: cyanobacteria - EPSP synthase - glyphosate - herbicide tolerance - phosphonate/phoshate uptake - target enzyme-based resistance - xenobiotic metabolism

(Received December 10, 2007; Accepted February 1, 2008)
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