• Ecotoxicological hazard of a mixture of glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid to the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck 1819) | Scientific Reports
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-50607-0

    #Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum, systemic, non-selective, and post-emergence herbicide applied widely as a plant growth regulator. Indeed, glyphosate affects essential aromatic amino acids synthesis in plants, inhibiting protein synthesis1,2. Due to its effectiveness, such compound is an important ingredient of numerous commercial formulations3. After application, a remarkable fraction of glyphosate can deposit directly on the ground, where it can be degraded or leached. Microorganisms can degrade glyphosate to aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) or sarcosine4,5. Consequently, glyphosate and AMPA can be found together in environment.

    Most ecotoxicological studies (including ours) have previously been performed to evaluate the effects of individual chemicals on aquatic species. However, aquatic organisms can be exposed to a mixture of different chemicals in the environment. Consequently, in the present study, we evaluated for the first time the impact of a mixture of glyphosate (as active ingredient) and AMPA on various cell and tissue biomarkers of M. galloprovincialis. Considering that i) glyphosate and AMPA can be found together in aquatic environments (including seawater) and that ii) they affect individually biomarker responses in mussels (sometimes with contrasting effects)24,25, we assessed the effects of realistic concentrations (100 µg/L) of glyphosate and AMPA and of a mixture of both (100 + 100 µg/L) to mussels.