– (an industrial herbicide and environmental pollutant), and its breakdown product – aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA)

 

Arinze Okoli is the project leader

Modern agricultural practices, such as genetic modification of plants to tolerate herbicides, have resulted in agrochemicals, e.g. glyphosate and its breakdown product AMPA, being introduced the food chain and the environment. Microorganisms in their respective milieu will come in contact with glyphosate and AMPA at various concentrations. This has important implications in that the normal homeostasis between microbe and host; and between microbe and environment could be perturbed.

This project aims to understand the response mechanisms of bacteria to glyphosate and AMPA. The project will provide important information on changes in the microbe’s physiology as well as provide information on the pattern of alteration of the existing equilibrium between organism and its host environment due to the introduction of glyphosate and AMPA.

Specific investigations include: (1) Response mechanisms of human normal bacterial flora to glyphosate and AMPA; (2) response mechanisms to glyphosate and AMPA of bacteria environmental isolates