Glyphosate in Collagen: Widespread Consequences
Last year, I received a phone call from Anthony Samsel who wanted to share with me an important new insight on a potentially new toxic mechanism of glyphosate. Anthony and I had already collaborated on four long papers on glyphosate, each one adding new dimensions to the knowledge of toxic mechanisms of this diabolical molecule. But what Anthony was about to share with me about glyphosate was a game-changer, if it turned out to be true. It could easily explain the alarming correlations we were finding between the exponential rise in the use of glyphosate as an herbicide on core crops and the corresponding rise in the incidence of a long list of debilitating diseases and conditions. Nancy Swanson was the first to recognize these strong correlations, which she compiled together with colleagues into an open access paper published in 2014.1
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the pervasive herbicide Roundup®. You are probably familiar with Roundup as a convenient way to control dandelions in your yard and weeds growing in the cracks of your walkways. Monsanto, Roundup’s manufacturer, convinced the U.S. regulatory agencies over four decades ago that glyphosate, despite the fact that it kills all plants except those core crops that have been genetically engineered to resist it, is practically nontoxic to humans.
Because of its perceived nontoxicity, the government has put very little effort into testing residue levels in the foods that we put on our table. The crops that are engineered to resist glyphosate are highly contaminated, because they take up the glyphosate and incorporate it into their own tissues. These include corn, soy, canola, alfalfa and sugar beets. As well, many grains, legumes and other crops are sprayed with glyphosate right before harvest as a desiccant or ripener. These include sugar cane, wheat, barley and oats, among others.
So, what was it that Anthony shared with me when he called me that day? He suggested that glyphosate might be getting into proteins by mistake in place of glycine. To understand the significance of this statement, you need to know a little bit about proteins and protein synthesis.
Proteins are one of the three major macronutrient classes in foods, the other two being carbohydrates and fats. Proteins are also the “work horses” of the body. All of the enzymes, receptors, ion channels and transporters are proteins. Hemoglobin, insulin, serum albumin and immunogobulins (antibodies) are all proteins.
EVIDENCE OF GLYCINE SUBSTITUTION BY GLYPHOSATE
Glyphosate is a complete glycine molecule except that a hydrogen that normally attaches to the nitrogen atom has been displaced by a methyl phosphonyl group. Glyphosate’s ability to disrupt pathways where glycine is normally involved is believed to be part of its toxicity profile, acting as a glycine analogue.2 The thought had crossed my mind that glyphosate might substitute for glycine during protein synthesis, but I had rejected the idea because I mistakenly believed that the presence of a side chain on the nitrogen atom would prevent glyphosate from joining hands in the paper-doll-like chain.
However, after Anthony insisted that it could happen, I looked into the matter more deeply, and that was when I realized that the coding amino acid proline also has a carbon substitution for the hydrogen atom normally attached to the nitrogen atom, but has no trouble linking up with the other amino acids. That’s when I got really interested in the idea and started to get serious about exploring the consequences.
What I quickly found out is that protein synthesis is a sloppy process. Lots of mistakes are made, and the approach a cell takes is to take a chance on the mistakes being relatively benign, and then only disassemble and reassemble those proteins that turn out to be flawed in a major way. Probably it is easier to detect protein functional failure or major misfolding than it is to detect and then undo every single mistake during the assembly process, and so this sloppy approach to manufacturing has survived the test of time.
A study on glyphosate’s effects on protein expression in microbes living in the rhizosphere (the soil surrounding the roots of plants) showed that both proteins involved in protein assembly and those involved in protein disassembly were significantly over-expressed in the presence of glyphosate.3 This strongly suggests that glyphosate was causing a lot more errors during protein synthesis than normal.
Monsanto claims that the main toxic effect of glyphosate on plants is disruption of an important biological pathway called the shikimate pathway. Specifically, glyphosate suppresses activity of an enzyme called 5-enolpyruvylshikimic-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). Remarkably, three different microbial species have developed resistance to glyphosate by swapping out a glycine residue at the site where the substrate phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) is secured in place.4,5 All three microbes have replaced this glycine residue with alanine (adding one extra methyl group). This results in a reduction in the efficiency of the protein, but, most remarkably, completely protects it from any suppression by glyphosate. One of these mutated microbial proteins is the basis of the genetic engineering that is done to afford resistance to glyphosate to all of the GMO Roundup Ready plants.6
Figure 1 shows the molecular structure of four amino acids—glycine, glyphosate, proline and alanine. It can be seen from the figure that both proline and glyphosate have something displacing the hydrogen atom that normally binds to the core nitrogen atom. Nonetheless, this does not prevent them from hooking up in the amino acid chain constituting a protein. Figure 2 schematizes how glyphosate substitution for glycine at the active site can cause extra material to bulge out into the pocket where the substrate normally fits snugly. This extra material interferes with the substrate and prevents it from entering the site, thus totally disrupting the enzyme’s function.
Glyphosate is not the only non-coding amino acid that causes trouble by substituting for coding amino acids during protein synthesis. There are at least nine examples of non-coding amino acids that are naturally produced by certain organisms, mostly microbes, and are thought to be utilized as a defense mechanism against pathogens.7 These unusual amino acids are analogues of the coding amino acids, including glutamic acid, leucine, L-arginine, serine, and proline. Note that glyphosate, however, is never synthesized by any life form—it is only a creation of the chemistry lab.
Some of the diseases linked to these other toxins include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and metabolic failure leading to death by starvation.8 The book Into The Wild describes the experiences of Chris McCandless who tried to live off of nature in the wilds of Alaska, and met his death due to chronic poisoning by an analogue of L-arginine, which he ingested by eating seeds from a plant commonly called wild potato, known to botanists as Hedysarum alpinum. Jon Krakauer, the author of the book, later collaborated with scientific experts to write a paper about this.9
CONSEQUENCES OF GLYPHOSATE SUBSTITUTION TO HEALTH
Not every protein that gets a glyphosate substituted for glycine in its peptide chain is totally wrecked by this error. Probably in many cases it hardly matters that there’s extra stuff stuck onto the nitrogen in the glycine residue. However, it turns out that there are hundreds if not thousands of proteins that strongly depend on glycine at certain spots in their chain in order to perform their job adequately. These are typically highly conserved, meaning that a glycine residue is always present in that spot in multiple variants of a particular protein that is expressed by many different species, even across different phyla in some cases. Researchers use alignment techniques to discover which residues are highly conserved across species in order to find residues that probably play an important role in the protein’s function.
A good example is myosin—a molecular motor in muscle cells that is responsible for muscle contraction and therefore movement. Myosin’s protein code specifies glycine at position 699 in the chain. If this glycine residue is replaced by alanine, myosin drops to only 1 percent of its original strength. In fact, if only one out of every fifty myosin molecules in a muscle fiber has glycine swapped out for alanine, the muscle loses half its strength, even though alanine has just one extra methyl group compared to glycine.
Substituting glyphosate for glycine 699 would be an even bigger deal. I strongly suspect that substitution of glyphosate for glycine in myosin and other molecular motors is a causative factor in chronic fatigue syndrome and ALS. In fact, we proposed this in a recent paper.8 In an earlier paper, the result of my phone conversation with Anthony Samsel, we showed systematically how various specific proteins would be adversely affected by glyphosate substitution, and how these could account for the steep rise that we are currently seeing in a number of diseases and conditions such as diabetes, obesity, autism, celiac disease, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.10
Two things to consider when thinking of proteins that might be most affected by this substitution error are the expression rate of the protein and the percentage of the protein that constitutes glycine residues. When you take these factors into consideration, one molecule stands out: collagen. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body—one in every four protein molecules in our body is collagen. Collagen is what gives our joints, bones and skin strength and elasticity.
Collagen is loaded with glycine. Twenty to 25 percent of the residues in collagen are glycines. Collagen forms a triple helix (see Figure 3) in long segments of the molecule through a repeat pattern of GXX, where G stands for glycine and X is usually either proline or hydroxyproline. If you start randomly inserting glyphosate in place of glycines in this triple helix, you will disturb the crystalline structure and wreck the collagen properties of elasticity, strength and the ability to retain water. This will almost certainly result in joint pain, a major contributor to the opioid epidemic we’re currently witnessing in the U.S.11 Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and various skin disorders can all be anticipated.
Once you think of glyphosate insinuating itself into collagen, it’s an easy step to imagine that glyphosate would be a major contaminant in gelatin, a very common food additive and the main constituent of gelatin-based deserts. Gelatin is routinely added to marshmallows, pudding, gummy bears, yogurts, margarine, frosting, cream cheese, sour cream, non-dairy creamers and fat-reduced foods. Gelatin is typically derived from the bones joints and skin of pigs and cows. These animals are fed high doses of glyphosate in their GMO Roundup Ready corn and soy feed. The glyphosate that makes its way into their joints ends up in your gelatin dessert.
Gelatin is also the main constituent of gel caps, which have become a standard way of packaging both pharmaceutical drugs and nutritional supplements such as fish oil. I would predict that any nutritional supplement housed in a gel capsule is going to cause you much more harm than good, because whatever benefit the contents provides is more than offset by the damaging effects of the glyphosate. This also means, of course, that bone broth, a highly nutritious food, must be made from grass-fed beef rather than from the large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). One solution is to be sure that your supplements use vegan gel caps, which are made from cellulose, a plant-derived polysaccharide that would probably be much less at risk of glyphosate contamination.
GLYPHOSATE, MMR AND AUTISM
The most serious consequence of glyphosate in collagen is likely to be glyphosate contamination in vaccines. Gelatin is an additive in many vaccines, and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine contains an especially high level of gelatin compared to other vaccines. Both Anthony Samsel and Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America have tested various vaccines for glyphosate. Many of them tested positive, but MMR stood out as having more glyphosate by an order of magnitude than any of the others. The live measles virus is grown on gelatin, and this provides the virus with the opportunity to incorporate glyphosate into its own proteins.
In particular, the measles virus produces a protein called haemagglutinin, and this is the protein that the human immune system is supposed to react to, producing specific antibodies, in order for the vaccine to “take.” Professor Singh of Utah State University has been studying autism since the early 1990s, and, in a series of papers, his team has shown that autistic children tend to produce an extremely high antibody response to measles haemagglutinin. Nearly all of those autistic children who have a high antibody response also have autoantibodies to myelin basic protein, an important protein in the myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibers in the brain.12 The autoantibodies are a result of a phenomenon called “molecular mimicry,” whereby a foreign protein happens to have a peptide sequence that closely resembles a peptide sequence in a native protein. The immune cells get confused and mistake the native protein as foreign due to its resemblance to the foreign protein (in this case, haemagglutinin). The result is an autoimmune attack on the nerve fibers in the brain.
The FDA maintains a database called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), and this database contains hundreds of thousands of reports of adverse reactions to vaccines since 1990. In a study that was conducted before I even knew the word glyphosate, my colleagues and I had reported the surprising result that events where MMR was one of the vaccines were highly over-represented with mentions of “autism” (p = 0.007).13 At the time, we struggled to explain this observation, since MMR contains neither mercury nor aluminum, two toxic metals that have been implicated in autism, and we hypothesized that it might be due to acetaminophen prescribed to curb the fever from the vaccine.
Once I realized that MMR might be contaminated with glyphosate, it made sense that the MMR vaccine administered today might be much more toxic than the vaccine was in the early years when glyphosate usage on core crops was more modest. To test this hypothesis, I divided up the VAERS database into two subsets spanning equal time spans—events before 2003 and events after 2002, that is, early versus late. As expected, we found that there were significantly more instances of severe adverse reactions after 2002, including anaphylactic shock, hospitalization, seizures and autism, as shown in Table 1.
SUMMARY
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, which is pervasive in our food supply. My recent research, inspired by Anthony Samsel’s conjecture, leads me to strongly suspect that glyphosate is getting into proteins by mistake in place of glycine. This has huge consequences to our health, because the human proteins contaminated with glyphosate don’t work properly in their function in the body, and the glyphosate-contaminated food proteins tend to resist proteolysis, sticking around and causing autoimmune disease through molecular mimicry. This feature easily explains the epidemic we’re seeing in allergies to foods that are likely to contain high amounts of glyphosate contamination, such as gluten, casein and soy.
One molecule we can predict to be severely affected by glyphosate substitution for glycine is collagen, the most abundant protein in the body. Collagen is essential for cushioning the joints, and, when it is defective due to glyphosate contamination, it performs poorly in its job, leading to joint pain and tendonitis, among other things. This can explain why so many people today suffer from chronic pain conditions such as shoulder pain and back pain, and why we have an epidemic in opioid drug abuse. Foods that contain high amounts of gelatin can be expected to be highly contaminated with glyphosate, and this includes bone broth, which would ordinarily be very nutritious. One also has to consider the implications of glyphosate contamination in gel capsules.
Probably the most ominous consequence of glyphosate contamination in collagen is the implications it has for vaccines. Vaccines are injected directly into the body past all the normal barriers, and this makes any toxic ingredient in the vaccine very problematic. MMR vaccine in particular was found to have much higher levels of glyphosate than other vaccines, and this may well explain the association between MMR and autism that shows up in the VAERS database. This can also explain why adverse reactions to MMR are much more severe today than they were in the 1990s when much less glyphosate was used on core crops.
You can help reduce glyphosate exposure for your family by switching to a 100 percent certified organic diet. More generally, there is an urgent need for government action to ban glyphosate in order to protect our population from harm.
SIDEBAR
PROTEINS AND THE DNA CODE
Proteins are the set of molecules that are specified through the DNA code, and they are made up of sequences of
so-called coding amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. There are four DNA nucleotides that are arranged as beads
on a string and that can be represented symbolically by the four letters, A, G, C and T. Each sequence of three of these
letters codes for a specific amino acid.
There are sixty-four possible unique codes, but only around twenty coding amino acids, so the code is redundant.
The amino acids also assemble like beads on a string, or more like paper dolls holding hands through chemical bonds
between a nitrogen atom in one amino acid and a carbon atom in the next one in the chain. Any sequence that contains
two guanines (GG) followed by any one of the four nucleotides (thus, GGA, GGG, GGC, and GGT), codes for glycine,
the smallest amino acid, uniquely free of any side chains.
REFERENCES
1. Swanson NL, Leu A, Abrahamson J, Wallet B. Genetically engineered crops, glyphosate and the deterioration of health in the United States of America. Journal of Organic Systems 2014; 9(2):6-37.
2. Beecham J, Seneff S. The possible link between autism and glyphosate acting as glycine mimetic – a review of evidence from the literature with analysis. J Mol Genet Med 2015; 9:4.
3. Newman MM, Lorenz N, Hoilett N, Lee NR, Dick RP, Liles MR, Ramsier C, Kloepper JW. Changes in rhizosphere bacterial gene expression following glyphosate treatment. Sci Total Environ 2016; 553:32-41.
4. Padgette SR, Re DB, Gasser CS, Eichholtz DA, Frazier RB, Hironaka CM, Levine EB, Shah DM, Fraley RT, Kishore GM. Site-directed mutagenesis of a conserved region of the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase active site. J Biol Chem. 1991;266(33):22364-9.
5. Eschenburg S, Healy ML, Priestman MA, Lushington GH, Schonbrunn E. How the mutation glycine 96 to alanine confers glyphosate insensitivity to 5-enolpyruvyl shikimate-3-phosphate synthase from Escherichia coli. Planta 2002; 216:129-135.
6. Funke T, Han H, Healy-Fried ML, Fischer M, Schönbrunn E. Molecular basis for the herbicide resistance of Roundup Ready crops. PNAS 2006;103(35):13010-13015.
7. Rodgers KJ, Shiozawa N. Misincorporation of amino acid analogues into proteins by biosynthesis. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 2008; 40(8):1452066.
8. Seneff S, Morley W, Hadden MJ, Michener MC. Does glyphosate acting as a glycine analogue contribute to ALS? J Bioinfo Proteomics Rev 2016: 2(3):1-21.
9. Krakauer J, Long Y, Kolbert A, Thanedar S, Southard J. Presence of L-canavanine in Hedysarum alpinum seeds and its potential role in the death of Chris McCandless. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 2015;26: 36-42.
10. Samsel A, Seneff S. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases V: Amino acid analogue of glycine in diverse proteins. Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry 2016;16:9-46.
11. Maxwell JC. The prescription drug epidemic in the United States: A perfect storm. Drug and Alcohol Review 2011;30(3):264-270.
12. Singh VK, Lin SX, Newell E, Nelson C. Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS autoimmunity in children with autism. J Biomed Sci. 2002;9(4):359-64.
13. Seneff S, Liu J, Davidson R. Empirical data confirm autism symptoms related to aluminum and acetaminophen exposure. Entropy 2012; 14: 2227-2253.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Winter 2016.
🖨️ Print post
Antonio says
I hope GL gelatin is OK
https://www.greatlakesgelatin.com/consumer/docs/October2016_G_results.pdf
Sarge says
Cant get any better than that. Thank you Antonio! Nice to know they care enough to test their products.
Peter Harris says
https://greatlakesgelatin.com/storefront/product-info/faqs/glyphosate-free.html
Robb Smith says
Where can we get collagen tested to be free of pesticides and round up etc?
corinna errett says
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is truly scary. I have contacted some of the companies that sell collagen to request glyphosate test results. In the mean time I would appreciate any recommendations for brands/companies who’s gelatin and collagen hydrolysate has been found to contain no glyphosate. Thank you
Jaci says
Corinna,
What companies have you contacted out of curiosity? I use Collagen Peptides from Vital Proteins. Have you contacted them by chance?
Jennifer says
To address your glyphosate question. Click on this address and view findings. http://www.greatlakesgelatin.com/consumer/Glyphosate.php
Refer to the symbols “<LQ” under RESULT column. See NOTES AND METHOD REFERENCE – you will see that it was not detectable based on the methodology used today. According to the report, glyphosate was tested in 2013 and then again by SORA in 2016 with no detection <0.1 mg/kg found.
It is recognized that Glyphosate may be a problem in some larger quantities; however, at the
time the article was written there was no scientific proof that glyphosate was found in Collagen. Most everything written states “could”, or “may”, or “possibly be harmful.” The first-line in the third paragraph of Seneff’s paper states that our government perceived glyphosate as non-toxic.
In any case, testing should be done on a regular basis to determine any limit what-so-ever of glyphosate in collagen products. Maybe public pressure on the Brazilian and Argentinian government should dis-allow Roundup to be used for agricultural purposes.
I would encourage this as Glycine is found in many other food groups that is eaten on a daily basis.
I would think that Stephanie Seneff, PhD would be doing more research on glyphosate in other food sources containing glycine. We feel more confident when companies like Great Lakes provides scientific evidence that testing is done. They seem to be more aware of testing programs than others.
roger b says
Would glycine supplementation in turn help to displace glyphosphate? OBVIOUSLY reducing glyphosphate exposure would be ideal but I’m wondering if say someone were exposed to glyphosphates or lived in an area close to glyphosphate spraying could benefit from glycine supplementation.
Mary Graese says
First off, congratulations on your 40th wedding anniversary Stephanie & Jay. You may not remember us, but we joined you at your dinner table the evening of your anniversary at the WAPF conference in Montgomery, AL. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and visiting over a wonderful meal of Bison Short Ribs prepared by the chefs for the WAPF guests.
Thank you so much Stephanie & Anthony for bringing this possibility to our attention. My first reaction was, “Thank God we only make broth from 100% grassfed Bison & Beef, non-GMO chicken & turkey”!! With that said, I want to encourage you that you can trust your broth from Northstar Bison having been made from animals not exposed to a diet with glyphosate residue or GE core crops, just non chemically treated prairie pasture grasses and non-GMO alfalfa.
Our guiding value is “We will never have to apologize to you” as discoveries are made in the future about the harmful effects of many influences of man’s altering of God’s perfectly designed provisions for us. The debate over GE foods is a prime example.
I look forward to more reports and data as it is supported by non biased research.
Elisabeth says
Hi Mary, As a consumer of Northstar products, I have a question: What do you mean by “just non chemically treated prairie pasture grasses and non-GMO alfalfa”? If the prairie pasture grasses are “non chemically treated,” then what ARE they treated with? Or did you mean to say that they are not treated at all? Secondly, am I wrong to assume that “non-GMO alfalfa” may still have pesticides and/or herbicides applied? No thanks – I’d rather have meats from animals NOT eating conventional alfalfa, either. Hope to hear from you on this. Thanks!
Elizabeth says
I have heard concern over vegan capsules due to the emulsifiers creating disruption in the intestinal mucosa, leading to a proximity difference between it and the microbiota of the gut. Would you still favor those over gelatin? And is anyone familiar with supplements that use grass fed gelatin for encapsulation?
Steve says
I do not believe there is any concern for glyphosate being in food products containing gelatin or in gelcaps. Gelatin is used in food products and in the manufacture of gelcaps because of the ability of aqueous solutions of gelatin to gel on cooling. The presence of glyphosate in gelatin alter its ability to gel and thus be detected by food and gelcaps producers.
Paul says
Steve,
You state, “The presence of glyphosate in gelatin alter(s) its ability to gel and thus be detected by food and gelcaps producers.”
Can you please identify the information source for your claim, including the results of any attempt in the lab to create gelatin from animal products known to be contaminated with glyphosate?
Marta Tereshchenko says
All the gelatin in the US is “cooked” using regular (non-organic) cattle’s’ carcasses, their hooves, horns, tails, ligaments, skin that are not sold for human consumption.
Labs do not cook. Factories cook. All these animals’ daily fodder was hay, grass, fermented young corn (GMO), but a part of their fodder is GMO corn meal and GMO soy flour. They are also loaded with antibiotics. So the corn and soy (which are mostly GMO in the US’s supermarkets) are loaded with glyphosate, like all non-organic produce whether GMO or non-GMO grown in the US (if they are not labeled “Organic”. I always get gelatin (with no glyphosate, I hope) when cooking organic and non-GMO chicken’s drumsticks. I was seeking to buy organic gelatin in the stores and on internet, and could find only ONE source made in Canada (porcine) said to be organic.
Stephanie Seneff says
Great information on which food glyphosate is present. I really learned alot and I think you would love this podcast http://learntruehealth.com/cause-of-autism-dr-stephanie-seneff/ which contain similar information.
Phillip Smith says
Dear Dr. Seneff,
I love your hypothesis but I have a few scientific questions about it if you don’t mind. I am a student in biochemistry and I want to spread the word about the use of a possibly dangerous glycine analogue, so I’m hoping you could help me or point me in the right direction. Here are my questions:
1) Normally during polypeptide synthesis, formation of a new peptide bond occurs when the terminal -NH2 of a polypeptide reacts with the C=O of an incoming amino acyl-tRNA. Since glyphosate would have a terminal -PO4 group, how would the reaction proceed?
2) Glyphosate has a large and very electronegative -PO4 group, unlike any of the typical amino acids. Would that phosphate group be expected to interfere with formation of the tRNA-amino acid, or with entry into the ribosomal pocket?
I’m still learning so I appreciate input from you or anyone reading this who knows more. Thanks for your time!
Stephanie Seneff says
Thanks for this insightful comment. I too was worried that glyphosate’s methylphosphonyl group that is attached to its nitrogen atom would get in the way. However, proline is a coding amino acid that also has a carbon atom bound to the nitrogen (as does glyphosate) and it is still able to hook up in the chain. Glyphosate, like glycine, has a “terminal” nitrogen atom and that is the atom that hooks up into the chain (just as in every other amino acid). It’s just that glyphosate is an unusual amino acid because it has the side chain on the nitrogen instead of on the carbon atom, as is the case for most amino acids. I imagine that only those proteins that have a lot of room around the glycine residue are susceptible to glyphosate substitution. But there are many proteins with essential glycines that have this property, because often the glycine is essential because it provides flexibility for movement at a hinge or space for substrate to bind. This means that stereochemically, glyphosate could fit into the space provided. I concede that it has not yet been conclusively proven that this is actually happening, but it also has not been conclusively proven that it is NOT happening. The more research I do the more convinced I am that this is glyphosate’s main mechanism of insidious cumulative toxicity.
Joseph Klitsch says
Dear Dr. Seneff,
Glycyl-tRNA synthetase specifically recognizes glycine using the net negative charge on its amine. Glyphosate does not hold a negative charge on its amine, and therefore the synthetase could not affix a tRNA to it. How do you propose tRNA-glyphosate is formed?
Thank you!
Frederick Lowe says
NAccording to InterPro, the Glycyl-tRNA synthetase belongs to the class 2 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, which preferentially couples the 3’ hydroxyl site of Glycine to the 2’ hydroxyl site of the tRNA. Class 1 aminoacyl t-RNA synthetases uses the aminoacyl group.
Phillip Smith says
Thank you for your reply, Dr. Seneff!
Have you discussed this matter with any biochemists at MIT? I spoke to several of my professors and they expressed serious doubts that glyphosate could be mis-incorporated during polypeptide synthesis. Proline is indeed incorporated into proteins despite being N-alkylated, but it is a very different molecule than glyphosate: it is cyclical, small, and is not electronegative.
Pavlov et al 2008 (doi: 10.1073/pnas.0809211106) show that even an N-butylation prevents peptide bond formation. Wouldn’t the PO3 group be even more disruptive?
Thanks again for your time, very interested to learn more from you!
Kevin Folta Ph.D. says
The claim that glyphosate substitutes for glycine is not supported by any data anywhere. Literally millions of proteins are analyzed every year by mass spec, proteomics, etc. There is ZERO evidence that this is true, it is wild speculation and creating new chemistry to satisfy another broken hypothesis. As a scientist, I’m disappointed that a Ph.D. level computer scientist will twist biochemistry to satisfy her agenda. Thank you to those that asked hard questions. This hypothesis ignores fundamentals of protein synthesis and that is proven by the complete lack of evidence to support it.
Joe says
What evidence I have read (and I am not a biologist) is that Dietrich Klinghardt was able to significantly lower glyphosate content in human urine via high dose glycine supplementation over several months’ time. I realize he is “on the fringes” but often on the edge is where one can bypass belief systems. Evidence that is discarded as impossible due to the observer’s belief system is still evidence.
Marta Tereshchenko says
Dietrich Klinghardt has a powerful mind, great education, and he’s wise
Bert says
Re the electronegativity of glyphosate’s phosphate:
How often does glyphosate exist purely rather than as a salt?
Would electronegativity still be a critical issue for say sodium glyphosate?
James Fulcher says
Interesting article, Dr. Seneff! If you haven’t already, you should reach out to other scientists who specialize in protein translation and see if they can provide some more detail about how glyphosate could be incorporated. Speaking as an undergraduate, I was pretty confused by your description of why the incorporation of proline means glyphosate could also be incorporated, since glyphosate doesn’t really resemble proline.
For instance: how could the peptide bond reaction occur between glyphosate’s amine and the next amino acid? There’s a phosphonate in the way!
Also, wouldn’t it be easy to prove glyphosate is incorporated, by running a pepsin digest and LC-MS/MS? Why hasn’t this been done?
Thanks,
James
Kathryn Weymouth says
Thank you for this information and comments. Following with interest.
Bev says
Hi , love your work , i was looking through the test results of G L collogen products only because i use it regularly. In test results if i’m reading it right it shows that it has 0.020 of gylphosate i thought that no gylphosate was safe. Plus i saw aminomethylphosphonic acid at 0.20. Any thoughts on this ?
Christine says
Dear Dr Seneff,
just need to join the group of other scientists who doubt in the substitution of Gly by glyphosate in the process of formation of proteins. From the stereo-chemistry point of view and charge distribution during protein chain building process it is hard to imagine your scenario. Until is really 100% proofed.
Carolyn Herbert says
I have noted that there is a huge rise in the need for ways to calm heartburn. I also noted a rise in autism, ADHD and dementias and other brain disorders. This article suggests to me that the testing is done one herbicide at a time, without considering the cumulative effect of consumption of many different foods over the course of a lifetime. Each of these foods might be “safe” because the herbicide and/or pesticide were applied the “correct” way, but in the course of a week, eating many different foods, a person could be absorbing enough to destroy their gut biome which has such an effect on the brain.
Delia Reed says
0.1 ppb is the amount needed to destroy gut bacteria. Moms Across America is doing research and Don Huber has been harping about glyphosate for decades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul6_Po67HV8
chris david says
WELL DONE !!
I could’nt find the information better than this.
Iván Ardila Anzúres says
Glyphosate Advanced Detection w. Proteolisis & Radio Tagging – Dr. Stephanie Seneff:
youtube.com/ivanardila
You´ll find a question related to Glyphosate detection in proteins hidden in its component aminoacids, made to Dr Seneff in the 2022 edition of “The real Truth About Health”.
The 2 methods mentioned were used in the secret experiments made by Monsanto, prior to this article, and hidden to the public until the trial was made and their release were order by the Court.
This will finish the discussion I think.
Now it´s time to ask if the “Glyphosate Free” seal consider this.
You´ll love the answer made by Dr Sennef.
Please share.
There is a PDF download too.
Chaton says
I have a question; would crops sprayed with Glyphosate pestisides but are not GMO crops also keep the toxin in their protein/collagen … where I am I can find easily locally grown pigs feet that the farmer nearly gives me for free. He is not certified organic, but he says he feeds his pigs GMO free, locally grown oats and wheat. This is in France, where they are as far as I understand still using at least occationally Glyphosate pestisides when neccissary on crops, but perhaps not as extensively as when it is used on GMO crop. From what I understand in this article is that foods or animal products that are GMO retain the Glyphosates more than perhaps farmers that use it on non-GMO crops perhaps more responsibly…..?? I wish I could more easily just find organic bones….perhaps that is the only safe bet, but this guy is really sweet and loves his pigs so I like supporting a local small scale farmer that probably just doesn’t have the money to certify organic,….i guess i could ask him if he thinks his grain is sprayed at some point with Glyphosates, but he may not know…
Dan Phillips says
I found this paper by Antoniou et al: “Glyphosate does not substitute for glycine in proteins of actively dividing mammalian cells”.
According to their experiments, glyphosate does not incorporate into proteins.
I wish someone would just test grain fed gelatin directly for glyphosate. It’s frustrating that people speculate so much about glyphosate in gelatin, but no one seems to have tested it.
I found the above paper from another one by Vicini et al “Residues of glyphosate in food and dietary exposure”.
In section 3.4 of that paper, there is a discussion on various studies on glyphosate residues in animal-based foods. According to them, the glyphosate levels were detected only when researchers used incorrect testing kits for the job. (The “ELISA kits” they refer are a type of test kits.) That’s my takeaway from it anyway. You can read it yourself.
I do try to eat pasture raised animals as much as possible, but it’s not always practical for me, and it’s expensive.
My faith in scientists has taken a severe battering in the last few years, so I don’t consider the information above to be 100% reliable, but for now I am not going to stress too much about potential glyphosate residues in grain-fed meat, eggs, or dairy. Stress is a known toxin (so to speak) after all.