Recent Publications

In this study, male and female mice were exposed to glyphosate through drinking water during mating and gestation. Researchers investigated whether prenatal exposure at dietary-relevant levels or the U.S. EPA's acceptable daily intake altered gut, metabolic, and behavioral outcomes across two generations in mice with or without genetic susceptibility to colitis. The findings suggest that prenatal glyphosate exposure, even below regulatory thresholds, may disrupt multiple physiological systems across generations

Glyphosate-based herbicides have been used in BC's forest industry since the early 1980s. This study aimed to determine the duration of glyphosate persistence in plants in northern BC. Plant tissues from five forest understory perennial species were collected from two distinct biogeoclimatic regions to map out how glyphosate residue quantities change over time according to species, plant tissue type, and climate. Residues persisted for up to 12 years in some tissue types, and root tissues generally retained glyphosate residues longer than shoot tissues. Samples from the colder, more northern biogeoclimatic zone investigated retained significantly higher levels of glyphosate for longer than samples collected from the warmer biogeoclimatic zone.

This review critically evaluates the literature surrounding glyphosate’s effects on the gut microbiome and concludes that glyphosate residues on food could cause dysbiosis (imbalance of the microbiota), given that opportunistic pathogens are more resistant to glyphosate compared to commensal bacteria. However, the authors acknowledge that research on glyphosate’s effects on the microbiome suffers from numerous methodological weaknesses, which make it impossible to draw any definitive conclusions regarding glyphosate’s influence on health through alterations in the gut microbiome.  Future studies are recommended.

In forested areas managed for timber harvest, fireweed, an ecologically and culturally important plant, is often incidentally exposed to glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) in post-harvest vegetation management. Results of this research showed that fireweed is negatively impacted by sublethal exposures of GBH including reduced photosynthetic efficiency, reduced height, reproductive shoot dieback, reduced pollen viability one-year after GBH applications, altered anther fluorescence, and reduced amino acid concentration in flowers. Glyphosate residues remained present at low concentrations in floral tissues at two years post-treatment.

This study investigated the effects of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) on the reproductive morphology of Rosa acicularis, a highly prevalent understory shrub within British Columbia, Canada. The authors analyzed floral and pollen morphology from treated plants and compared these with untreated plants in both field and controlled experiments. They found reduced pollen viability, non-dehiscent anthers, and alterations in pollen and petal morphology in flowers from treated sites, as well as glyphosate residues present in floral tissues 2 years after GBH applications.

This study examined the effect of both transgenic corn and the use of glyphosate on two groups of rhizosphere microbes; denitrifying bacteria and fungi, over one growing season. Using quantitative PCR to measure microbe abundance, and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) to measure community structure, the authors found that neither crop type (transgenic or conventional) nor herbicide (glyphosate or conventional) affected rhizosphere denitrifying or fungal communities. Instead, results showed that seasonality was a significant determinant. These results suggest that in the short term, some microbial communities are robust to changes in their environment by GR crops.

This perspective article weighs the evidence for chronic glyphosate exposure on the gut microbiome and the potential consequences on the gut-brain axis correlated with increased incidence of neuropsychiatric conditions. The authors discuss potential mechanisms by which glyphosate may elicit these effects through the disruption of the normally symbiotic relationship of the host and the gut microbiome.

This study investigated native plants growing in northern British Columbia, Canada, to determine glyphosate presence and location within tissue in select species of traditional-use value with different life strategies. Shoot, fruit, and root portions of select species of perennial herbaceous and woody plants were collected one year after forestry-based applications of glyphosate in the Peace River Region of British Columbia. Glyphosate residues were found one-year after application. The highest and most consistent levels of glyphosate and AMPA were found in herbaceous perennial root tissues, but shoot tissues and fruit also contained glyphosate in select species. Levels found in some cases were greater than expected.