Glyphosate: Discovery, Development, Applications, and Properties

Re-registration Challenges of Glyphosate in the European Union

“…Expiration of the patent protection outside the US in 1991 caused a 30, 40, and 50% drop in the market sales of Roundup within 1, 2, and 5 years, respectively. However, the introduction of GT GM crops has more than compensated Monsanto for initial market losses, as Roundup could then continue to be exclusively marketed as a product linked to Roundup Ready R (RR) crops, the first GT crop being RR soybean in 1996, followed by GT cotton, GT maize, GT canola, GT alfalfa, and GT sugar beet (Dill et al, 2010).…”

“…Active ingredients subject to re-registration were specified in Annex I of the Directive, and the re-registration process was carried out in a four-stage work program completed by the end of 2010 (Anton et al, 2014). The first evaluation of glyphosate under Council Directive 91/414/EEC took place in 1995 within the first stage of the work program for existing active substances referred to in Article 8 (Dill et al, 2010). The basis of the evaluation was a joint dossier submitted by three industrial task forces, and Germany was designated as Rapporteur MS.…”

“…Since its introduction as an herbicide active ingredient in 1971 (Baird et al, 1971), glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine] became and remains the market leading herbicide active ingredient worldwide (Dill et al, 2010;Székács and Darvas, 2012;Benbrook, 2016). Its initial patent protection commenced in 1971 (Franz, 1974), and was renewed in the eighties on the basis of novel composition-through a process that involved property acquisitions among major pesticide companies.…”

Glyphosate-Resistant Giant Ragweed (<i>Ambrosia trifida</i> L.): 2,4-D Dose Response and Control with Postemergence Herbicides in Soybean

“…Glyphosate is the most widely used postemergence, nonselective herbicide in the world [1] and is used in row crops, orchards, fallow lands and pastures [2]. Since the introduction of glyphosate resistant soybean in 1996, there has been a rapid increase in the use of glyphosate resistant crops [3].…”

Glyphosate-based phospho-organic herbicides – an outline of action, metabolism and the selected effects on humans and other organisms

“…In plants, fungi and numerous microorganisms, thanks to the activity of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS, EC2.5.1.19), shikimate 3-phosphate (S3P) is converted into 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (ESSP) mediated by phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP). Glyphosate binds more strongly to the EPSPS active centre than the right intermediate substrate, which leads to shikimic acid accumulation in cells and deficiency of aromatic amino acids [4][5][6][7]. As a result, the plant cannot produce the dyes and flavone compounds essential for its functioning; after several-several dozen minutes, the plant dies together with underground elements.…”