The spontaneous occurrence of resistance to the herbicide glyphosate in weed species has been an extremely infrequent event, despite over 20 years of extensive use. Recently, a glyphosate-resistant biotype of goosegrass (Eleusine indica) was identified in Malaysia exhibiting an LD(50) value approximately 2- to 4-fold greater than the sensitive biotype collected from the same region. A compariso...

The enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) catalyzes the penultimate step of the shikimate pathway, and is the target of the broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate. Kinetic analysis of the cloned EPSPS from Staphylococcus aureus revealed that this enzyme exerts a high tolerance to glyphosate, while maintaining a high affinity for its substrate phosphoenolpyruvate. Enzymatic act...

The 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS; EC 2.5.1.19) is a key enzyme in the shikimate pathway for the production of aromatic amino acids and chorismate-derived secondary metabolites in plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It is also the target of the broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate. Natural glyphosate resistance is generally thought to occur within microorganisms in a strong s...

5-Enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase catalyzes the formation of EPSP from shikimate-3phosphate (S3P) and phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) in the sixth step of the shikimate pathway. This pathway is absent from mammalian systems but present in plants, bacteria, fungi and parasites, making EPSP synthase a promising model for the development of new antibiotics. One suggested approach toward...

Previous investigations (l-5) have established in some detail the path of aromatic biosynthesis in bacteria, starting with glucose and leading to the formation of shikimate 5-phosphate (Fig. 1). This was also true of the conversion of prephenate to phenylalanine (6) and tyrosine (7), and of anthranilate to tryptophan (8-10). On the other hand, it was not known how shikimate 5-phosphate is conve...