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EFRE-geförderte Projekte:

Weed contrOL by biological compounds identified in necrotizing plant pathogenic Fungi - WOLF


Principal investigators (PIs):

Prof. Dr.Deising, Holger B.: Faculty of Natural Sciences III, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Department of Phytopathology and Plant Protection

Dr. Arnold, Norbert, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Department Bioorganic Chemistry

Prof. Dr. Csuk, René: Faculty of Natural Sciences II, Institute of Chemistry, Department of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry,

Support for the project: EFRE ZS/2019/01/96528

1. Project summary

On a global scale, the total potential loss due to pests varied from about 50% in wheat to more than 80% in cotton production; overall, losses caused by weeds were the highest across pests, corresponding to 34%. Given the global impact of weeds on crop production, it is conceivable that the global herbicide market is estimated to reach $34.10 billion by 2022. Recent controversial dis- cussions on the risk imposed by synthetic herbicides, e.g. glyphosate, explain the growing public demand for bio-compatible weed control. Indeed, within the different categories of herbicides, bio- herbicide are predicted to grow at the fastest rate (23.5% compound annual growth rate during the forecast period 2016 - 2022). In this project we will employ highly destructive plant pathogenic fungi to identify novel lead structures of plant necrotizing molecules. These structures, representing a novel class of bio-compatible herbicides, will be chemically modified to optimize their efficacies.

2. State of the art

On a global scale, the highest yield losses are attributed to weeds and correspond to 34% (Oerke 2006). Given the global impact of weeds on crop production, it is conceivable that the glo- bal herbicide market had an enormous volume of $24 billion in 2016, and is even estimated to in- crease to $34 billion by 2022. However, recent controversial discussions on the health risk impos- ed by synthetic herbicides such as glyphosate led to a strong public demand for bio-compatible weed control. As a result, within the different categories of herbicides, bio-herbicides are predicted to grow at the fastest rate, i.e. 23.5% compound annual growth rate during the forecast period from 2016 to 2022 (Nasdaq Globe Newswire 2017). Classically, bio-herbicides are defined as microor- ganisms infecting and destroying certain weed species. In most cases the destructive action of these microorganisms is based on phytotoxic secondary metabolites (SMs). Indeed, Vurro et al. (2009) list several fungal SMs with plant necrotizing activity, but several of these are not suited to be used as herbicides, due to their mammalian toxicity or tumorigenic activity. Nonetheless, the enormous number and structural diversity of fungal SMs and compounds derived from these has not as yet been acknowledged as a rich reservoir of putative herbicides. Furthermore, the recent iden- tification of Xpp1 as a global repressor of fungal secondary metabolism (Derntl et al. 2017) has o- pened new biotechnological avenues for compound identification.

In this project we will use the wild-type strains and generate and characterize corresponding Δxpp1 mutants with de-repressed secondary metabolism of two strongly plant necrotizing pathogenic fun- gi, i.e. the maize pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola and the banana pathogen Mycosphaerella fijiensis (Bergstrom & Nicholson 1999; Churchill et al. 2011) to produce herbicidal culture filtrates. These culture filtrates will be tested for herbicidal activity and serve as a source of compounds, which will be analyzed for their chemical structure, herbicidal efficacy and mammalian toxicity. The most efficient compounds will be chemically modified in order to optimize their efficacy.

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