Glyphosate–Exonuclease Interactions: Reduced Enzymatic Activity as a Route to Glyphosate Biosensing

Mohamed Amine Berkal (1) , Quentin Palas (1) , Estelle Ricard (1) , Christine Lartigau-Dagron (1) , Luisa Ronga (1, 2) , Jean‐jacques Toulmé (1, 3, 4) , Corinne Parat (1) , Corinne Nardin (1)

1 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux
2 ARNA - Régulations Naturelles et Artificielles
3 Novaptech, Bordeaux 33076, France
4 ARNA - Acides Nucléiques : Régulations Naturelle et Artificielle

N-phosphonomethyle-glycine (glyphosate) is the most widely used pesticideworldwide due to its effectiveness in killing weeds at a moderate cost,bringing significant economic benefits. However, owing to its massive use,glyphosate and its residues contaminate surface waters. On site, fastmonitoring of contamination is therefore urgently needed to alert localauthorities and raise population awareness. Here the hindrance of the activityof two enzymes, the exonuclease I (Exo I) and the T5 exonuclease (T5 Exo) byglyphosate, is reported. These two enzymes digest oligonucleotides intoshorter sequences, down to single nucleotides. The presence of glyphosate inthe reaction medium hampers the activity of both enzymes, slowing downenzymatic digestion. It is shown by fluorescence spectroscopy that theinhibition of ExoI enzymatic activity is specific to glyphosate, paving the wayfor the development of a biosensor to detect this pollutant in drinking water atsuitable detection limits, i.e., 0.6 nm

Mots clés: biosensing; enzymatic inhibition; fluorescence spectroscopy; glyphosate; oligonucleotide switching structures; Glyphosate

Domaines: Chimie analytique; Ingénierie de l'environnement; Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire

Mohamed Amine Berkal, Quentin Palas, Estelle Ricard, Christine Lartigau-Dagron, Luisa Ronga, et al.. Glyphosate–Exonuclease Interactions: Reduced Enzymatic Activity as a Route to Glyphosate Biosensing. Macromolecular Bioscience, 2023, 23 (8), pp.2200508. ⟨10.1002/mabi.202200508⟩. ⟨hal-04055735⟩