Welcome to Brainstuff from house Stop works dot com where smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, how does the herbicide round up work? Round Up, which is a trade name used by Monsanto, and other herbicides based on glyphosphate, which is the generic name, are probably the most commonly applied weed killers in use today. These herbicides are used by everyone from farmers to foresters, to gardeners to biologists who are trying to control invasive exotic plants.
Glyphosphate based herbicides all work on the same biochemical principle. They inhibit a specific enzyme that plants need in order to grow. The specific enzyme is called EPSP synthase. Without that enzyme, plants are unable to produce other proteins essential to growth, so they yellow and dye over the course of several days or weeks. Majority of plants use this same enzymes, so almost all plants to come to round up.
If you've read the How Stuff Works article called how Cells Work, you know a good bit about DNA and how it produces enzymes in the same way that many antibiotics gum up enzyme production to kill bacteria. Glyphosphate gums up enzymes and plants to kill them. Glyphosphate kills plants like antibiotics kill bacteria. If you've been following farming news or the genetically modified food debate, you know that glyphosphate
tolerance seeds are now available. You can buy genetically modified corn, soybeans, and so on that are immune to glyphosphate. These plants use an enzyme that performs the same function as EPSP synthas, but is not inhibited by glyphosphate. Round up will kill almost any plant, including aquatic plants, so you want to be sure to avoid spray drift onto other plants or into the water. Any pesticide should be applied carefully. Do
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