Abstract
Herbicides represent about 60% of the pesticides (by volume) used worldwide. The success of herbicides can be attributed in part to a relatively steady discovery of one unique mechanisms of action (MOA) every two years from the early 1950s to the mid-1980s. While this situation changed dramatically after the introduction of glyphosate-resistant crops, evolution of resistance to glyphosate has renewed the agrichemical industry interest in new chemistry interacting with novel target sites. This review analyses recent characterization of new herbicide target sites, the chemical classes developed to inhibit these target sites, and where appropriate the innovative technologies used in these discovery programs.
Highlights
The first synthetic herbicide was discovered in the early 1940s [1] and its efficacy and selectivity caused a paradigm change in agricultural weed management practices
While there are a host of enzymes catalyzing the many subsequent steps in fatty acid synthesis, the only other herbicide target site in this pathway are the very long chain fatty acid elongases (VLCFAE)
While no herbicides have arisen from this chemical class, isoxaboroles may lead to new scaffolds to develop new phloem-mobile molecules
Summary
The first synthetic herbicide was discovered in the early 1940s [1] and its efficacy and selectivity caused a paradigm change in agricultural weed management practices. The introduction of glyphosate-resistant (GR) crops in the last 25 years has compounded the selection pressure imposed by the repeated application of herbicides over larger areas Managing these HR plants is problematic and the lack of control threatens farm profitability while challenging environmentally beneficial farming practices (e.g., no-till) [2,3]. MoA technology uses in vivo high throughput platforms, proprietary bioinformatics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to discover novel herbicides with novel MOAs. Enko Chem Inc. aims to become a leading innovator in crop protection chemistry by utilizing a target-based discovery platform to produce high quality and novel small molecule starting points and a suite of tools and approaches to develop these into product candidates, and Agrematch develops AI and big-data tools for rational identification of molecules with desired biological activity and high potential to become crop protection products while significantly reducing R&D costs and accelerating time to market
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