Talk:Shikimate pathway

Article edited to support a class action lawsuit?
It appears that this sentence was added recently (May 2015) in order to bolster a class action lawsuit against Monsanto that was filed two weeks before the edit:


 * The Shikimate pathway is found in microbes that live within humans, in the gut microbiome, and these microbes are essential to metabolism, digestion and immune system function.

The lawyer who filed the suit is pointing to the recently added material in this article as evidence of claims made in his suit. See this Facebook post by Monsanto Class Action page.

Other related articles, such as one on the Transsulfuration pathway, do not contain such assertions about the essential functions of microbes and their role in the human gut. Further, the Shikimate pathway is also found in pathogenic bacteria. The edit misrepresents this and could create a mistaken belief that the Shikimate pathway is only found in beneficial bacteria.

This edit does not improve the quality of the article and should be revised or removed. I'm not a frequent Wikipedia editor and would like another opinion. Wurdeh (talk) 00:07, 14 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Hmm, the sentence can be reworded. The first part can become more general, the second part can be noted down in other articles about microbes. The article here should primarily be about the Shikimate pathway, and describing that. I concur that the last part of the sentence sounds more like promo - visitors should be put primarily towards factual evidence, e. g. what the shikimate pathway does, irrelevant over as to whether anything unrelated to it is "essentia"l. By the way, is it not also that plants can do the pathway? So focusing primarily on microbes alone is indeed narrow-sighted. Last but not least, it was actually you who made a connection here with Monsanto; without your reference, how many others would have "noticed" it or not? Not that I am even at the point of where I agree with your statement in the slightest, you yourself could also have a hidden agenda. At any rate, the article should be as neutral as possible, and factually correct (which the above sentence somewhat was, but it would have to mention all organisms that perform it). 2A02:8388:1600:A880:BE5F:F4FF:FECD:7CB2 (talk) 13:45, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Let's not have edit warring
A suggestion for User 72.193.14.193. Your edit is not being accepted by the community mainly because it is unsourced and does not fit with other articles about glyphosate. Rather than keep changing it, you should come here to talk first as per WP:BRD Adv4Ag (talk) 01:07, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

Clarification for the steps
The article right now reads:

"Prephenic acid is then synthesized by a Claisen rearrangement of chorismate by Chorismate mutase. Prephenate is oxidatively decarboxylated with retention of the"

My question is ... what exactly is Prephenate? The sentence before mentioned prephenic acid. Is prephenate 100% identical to prephenic acid? I really have no idea but the article should clarify it, rather than mention a possibly different molecule. 2A02:8388:1600:A880:BE5F:F4FF:FECD:7CB2 (talk) 13:46, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Shikmic acid pathway
Shikmic acid pathway short term 2409:4042:2293:CD5C:0:0:2936:18B0 (talk) 17:18, 6 March 2022 (UTC)