Roundup causes embryonic development failure, alters metabolic pathways and gut microbiota functionality in non-target species

Background: Research around the weedkiller Roundup is among the most contentious of the 21st century. Scientists have provided inconclusive evidence that the weedkiller causes cancer and other life-threatening diseases, while industry-paid research reports that the weedkiller has no adverse effect on humans or animals. Much of the controversial evidence on Roundup is rooted in the approach used to determine safe use of chemicals, defined by outdated toxicity tests.We apply a system biology approach to the biomedical and ecological model species Daphnia to quantify the impact of Glyphosate and of its commercial formula, Roundup, on fitness, genome-wide transcription and gut microbiota, taking full advantage of clonal reproduction in Daphnia. We then apply machine learning-based statistical analysis to identify and prioritize correlations between genome-wide transcriptional and microbiota changes.

Results: We demonstrate that chronic exposure to ecologically relevant concentrations of ...