Effects of Glyphosate on the Metabolism of Phenolic Compounds: VII. Root-Fed Amino Acids and Glyphosate Toxicity in Soybean (Glycine max) Seedlings

Abstract

Several regimes of supplying exogenous aromatic amino acids to intact, 3-day-old, soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ‘Hill’] seedlings by root uptake were tested to determine if growth retardation caused by root-fed, 0.5 mM glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine] could be reversed. Generally, root-fed levels of aromatic amino acids just below growth-retarding levels (e.g. 1 mM phenylalanine + 0.1 mM tyrosine) reversed root growth inhibition caused by glyphosate to a small (ca. 10%) but significant extent. Feeding aromatic amino acids for 1 to 3 days before glyphosate exposure did not enhance the reversal. Uptake and metabolism of root-fed, aromatic amino acids in control and glyphosate-treated plants were verified by increased levels of hydroxyphenolic compounds (end products of aromatic amino acid metabolism) and by uptake and incorporation of 14C-labeled phenylalanine and tyrosine. On a fresh weight basis, glyphosate had no inhibitory effect on uptake or incorporation of these amino acids into protein or secondary phenolic compounds. After 3 days of exposure, glyphosate had no substantial effects on shikimate dehydrogenase activity in control or aromatic amino acid-fed seedlings. These data suggest that either root-fed aromatic amino acids are compartmentalized differently than the endogenous pools affected by glyphosate or that root-fed glyphosate exerts most of its effect on growth of soybean seedlings through means other than inhibition of aromatic amino acid synthesis.