Nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor: glyphosate detection and the analysis of genetic changes in rye DNA

Glyphosate, commonly known by its original trade name Roundup™, is the world’s most widely used herbicide. Glyphosate and it metabolites have profound negative environmental impact and long-term toxicity risk  including  cancerogenity,  genotoxicity,  endocrine  disruption even  at  concentration  levels  too  low  to  have  a  herbicidal  effect. Therefore,   the   detection   of   these   pollutants   in   low   concentrations   is   an   actual   and   important   task. To increase the sensitivity of the sensor, nanostructures were used. To analyze the presence of glyphosate and its metabolites in rye juice, two groups of samples were selected. In the first case, glyphosate  at different concentrations was  added  to  the  water  for  irrigation  on  the  first  day    and  then the samples  were  watered  with  pure  water  for  7  days.  In  the  second  case,  rye  was  watered  with  pure  water  for  all  8  days,  and  glyphosate  was artificially added just before the measurement. The   obtained   samples   were   studied   by the   DPV employing   nanostructured working electrode. To  analyze  changes  in  the  DNA  sequence,  a  PCR  product  obtained  from  samples  of  the  first  group  was  electrochemically studied. To confirm the results obtained, an electrophoresis method was also applied. The  results  indicate  that  the  DPV  signal  obtained  from  samples  with  artificially  added  glyphosate  has significant differences compared to the  signal  obtained from the  juice  of plants absorbing glyphosate in a  natural  way during growth. However,  in  both  cases,  CuO  nanostructure  based sensor  detects  the  presence  of  glyphosate  or  its  metabolites compared with the control sample. The experiment also found significant changes in the DNA caused by exposure with glyphosate during rye growth process of rye sprouts.