Abstract
Molecular targets play important roles in agrochemical discovery. Numerous pesticides target the key proteins in pathogens, insect, or plants. Investigating ligand-binding pockets and/or active sites in the proteins’ structures is usually the first step in designing new green pesticides. Thus, molecular target structures are extremely important for the discovery and development of such pesticides. In this manuscript, we present a review of the molecular target structures, including those of antiviral, fungicidal, bactericidal, insecticidal, herbicidal, and plant growth-regulator targets, currently used in agrochemical research. The data will be helpful in pesticide design and the discovery of new green pesticides.
Highlights
The production of green pesticides is a very complex process, and there are many similarities among the design-synthesis-test-analysis cycles applied in agrochemical research
We summarize the antiviral, fungicide, bactericide, insecticide, herbicide, and plant growth regulator target structures involved in agrochemicals discovery
The complex structure of protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) with acifluorfen [57,58] was solved, which shows that the acifluorfen molecule binds to Ile176 by forming hydrophobic interactions, and the structural biology of PPO mutants and the mechanism of actions of herbicides based on PPO and its mutants were systematically studied as potent targets of novel herbicides [59,60,61]
Summary
The production of green pesticides is a very complex process, and there are many similarities among the design-synthesis-test-analysis cycles applied in agrochemical research. If these commercial pesticide types are classified according to the target of action, there are only 52, 26, and 20 kinds of targets for fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides, respectively [2] In these targets, nucleic acids synthesis, cytoskeleton and motor protein, respiration, amino acids and protein synthesis, signal transduction, lipid synthesis or transport/membrane integrity or function, sterol biosynthesis, cell wall biosynthesis, melanin synthesis, host plant defense induction are the most used targets for studying the fungicides mechanisms of action [3]. Viral matrix protein, viral helicase, pyruvate kinase, dihydrolipoamide S-succinyltransferase (DLST), FabV, PYL family proteins (PYLs), coronatine insensitive 1 (COI1), gibberellin insensitive dwarf (GID1), hydrolase DWARF14 (D14), oxysterol-binding protein (OSBP), myosin I, and OfHex was applied to developing new green pesticide targets, while succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), tubulin, cytochrome bc complex, 14 α-demethylases (DM), nAChR, GluCl, GABACl, ryanodine receptor (RyR), TRPV, AHAS, PPO, HPPD, ACC, and dihydroxy-acid dehydratase (DHAD) are classical pesticide molecular targets (Figure 1). We summarize the antiviral, fungicide, bactericide, insecticide, herbicide, and plant growth regulator target structures involved in agrochemicals discovery
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