Roundup

[Neil Jones]

In article <38D298B8.B131B22D at gate.net> viceroy at gate.net "Anne Kilmer" writes:

> Diane, 
> Roundup is not friendly stuff. 
> Read the instructions on the package. You see those warnings about not
> using it near water? That's because it kills the critters in the water,
> whether plant, animal or in between. Protista, they call them these
> days. 
> It also kills the little guys in the soil, and, despite the makers'
> claims, does some damage to trees, shrubs and forbs whose roots it
> touches. 
> Anne Kilmer
>   


Anne is of course right. The poison in Roundup prevents certain 
organisms with a particular metabolic pathway from producing proteins
and they die. This includes a large range of soil organisms.
For those who want more detail Glyphosate is chemically
N-phosphonomethylglycine and it blocks the action of the enzyme
5-enolpyruvykshikimate-3-phosphate Synthase which catalyses an important
step in the synthesis of aromatic amino acids.
It also hangs around in the environment for a while too.

-- 
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.nwjones.demon.co.uk/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve