Advanced Agrochem最新文献

Photopharmacology is a novel technology in drug design that aims at solving poor drug selectivity. This technology is currently in the proof-of-concept phase and relies on the photoactivation or inactivation of photochromic ligands (PCLs) to regulate biological functions and living organisms. As potential molecular tools in future agriculture 4.0, the photochromic pesticides are effective in optical control of receptors, ion channels, living behaviors, and enzymes, which displays an innovative way of pesticide discovery. In this review, we highlight the progresses of the photoisomerized insecticides and fungicides. By integrating photoswitches, such as azobenzenes and diarylethenes, into pesticide molecules, several PCLs were developed for optical regulation of important insect or fungi targets in vivo, including GABARs, RyRs, nAChRs, SURs, sodium channels, GluCls, and SDH. The results are highly significant in revealing interactions of agrochemicals with their targets, biological functions, and living behaviors, and provide powerful toolkits in understanding ligand-receptor interactions. Moreover, there is a growing demand for a diverse range of PCLs, particularly those that are sensitive to red and NIR light or sunlight, for actual field use in agriculture. We envision that this particular mode of pesticide discovery is of great promise for overcoming the challenges posed by the improper use of agrochemicals.

4-Hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (EC 1.13.11.27, HPPD) is currently one of the popular targets of herbicide research, and herbicides targeting it have shown promising results in treating resistant weeds. However, the long-term application of HPPD inhibitors with in their classical scaffolds inevitably leads to the development of drug resistance. To further delay the underlying development of weed resistance to HPPD inhibitors, we successfully screened HPPD inhibitor pharmacophore with novel chelate structures using computer-aided drug molecular design and obtained 2-trifluoromethyltetrazolium nicotinamide derivatives through active fragment splicing. Among these derivatives, 6-(3,3-diethyl-1-methylureido)-N-(1-methyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)-2-(trifluoromethyl)nicotinamide (compound 31), exhibited the most promising in vitro enzyme inhibitory activity, with IC₅₀ value of 0.072 μM, which was approximately five times better than that of the control agent mesotrione (IC₅₀ = 0.363 μM). The crystal structure of the AtHPPD complexed with compound 31 (2.0 Å) and the binding energy calculations of the representative compounds revealed several important interactions of the ligand binding to the target protein, which explained the superior enzyme inhibitory activity of the compounds at the molecular level. In addition, compounds 7 and 31 possessed 100% inhibition against the five target weeds at the tested dosage and both were more effective against Setaria viridis than mesotrione. In general, it is promising to design novel HPPD inhibitors by developing novel chelating structures, and compounds 7 or 31 could be used as the leads for further development of valuable HPPD inhibitors.

Agricultural chemicals with multifunctional applications in crop protection have attracted increasing attention. Herein, two new series of thiazole and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives containing a hydrazone substructure were designed and synthesized via a concise synthesis route. Bioassay results showed that most of the thiazole derivatives exhibited broad-spectrum fungistatic activities, which were exemplified by compounds 1c, 1e, 1g, 1h and 1j. In particular, compound 1e displayed excellent in vitro inhibitory effects with the EC₅₀ values of 5.00, 18.24, 6.94, and 3.03 μg/mL against the fungi Botrytis cinerea, Cytospora sp, Fusarium graminearum, and Fusarium solani, respectively. Detached fruit experiments against tomato gray mold (caused by B. cinerea) in vivo revealed that the control efficiency of compound 1e at 10, 20 and 40 μg/mL for 5 days was 35.05%, 54.14% and 81.83%, respectively, which was comparable and even superior to that of the fungicide carbendazim. Additionally, the title compounds also showed remarkable larvicidal activity against M. separata and some compounds exhibited good aphicidal activity. In a word, the bioassay indicated that a certain number of title compounds had multiple biological activities. Given their excellent antifungal and larvicidal characteristics, these interesting derivatives based on the title compounds could be served as new scaffolds for the development of pesticide with multifunctional applications.

Foodborne contaminants such as biogenic amines (BAs), nitrite and sulfite are harmful to human health. To safeguard food safety, the content of BAs, nitrite and sulfite should be strictly controlled. Small-molecule fluorescent probes are a promising analytical tool for monitoring BAs, nitrite and sulfite because they are highly sensitive and selective, offer simplicity of operation, and can enable optical signal visualization of the analyte. In this review, we summarize the most recent progress on the development of fluorescent probes for selectively detecting BAs, nitrite, and sulfite. In particular, we discuss the working mechanisms, sensing performance, and practical applications of various fluorescent probes that have been developed in recent years for detecting BAs, nitrite, and sulfite, with a particular emphasis on the utilization of these probes in food. Lastly, we discuss the research directions, trends, and prospects of molecular fluorescent probes in food applications in the future. We hope this review can offer conceptual and design guidance for researchers and practitioners to develop novel fluorescent probes for food safety.

The survival of human beings is inseparable from the development of agriculture. The use of pesticides is still an important means to ensure agricultural production, economic benefits and the national economy. With the abuse of pesticides, some pesticides are difficult to degrade after entering the natural world, which leads to many serious problems through the transmission and enrichment of food chains. Pesticide residue detection is a long-term challenge in the field of environment and food safety detection. In recent years, a large number of studies have been carried out on the detection of pesticide residues based on fluorescence sensing methods. This paper focuses on the application of fluorescence sensors in environmental samples or food, and analyzes the advantages and problems of existing fluorescence sensors in design, construction and data processing. Finally, the possible improvement directions in the future are discussed to promote its potential commercial value application research.

Graphite-derived carbon-based nanomaterials (GCNMs) as an exciting class of engineering carbonmaterials have been extensively exploited in environment and agriculture for pollution restorer, environmental purifier, plant growth stimulant, and stress resistance inducer. With the increasing demand of production in past decades, GCNMs were inevitably released into the natural environment and became emerging pollutants.

This review briefly summarized the recent progress on GCNMs-plant interaction with positive and negative sides, and discussed the biphasic (stimulatory-inhibitory) regulation of GCNMs on plant systems. The emphasis was placed on disseminating the latest scientific research, covering various effectiveness of GCNMs on plants and cells as well as nanotoxicity. Particularly, it is highlighted that fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, graphenes, and their functionalized forms as the representative zero-, one-, and two-dimensional GCNMs in optimum quantity have favorable efficacy on plants for seed germination, growth and development, fruit and productivity, and stress tolerance. On the contrary, GCNMs have possibly induced cytotoxicity and phytotoxicity on plant at anatomic, physiological, and genetic levels. The toxic mechanisms were mainly attributed to ion leakage from membrane, chloroplast damage, decreasing the levels of photosynthetic/nonphotosynthetic pigments and plant hormones, downregulating activities of metabolism and enzymatic/non-enzymatic antioxidant systems, or triggering ROS increase for inducing oxidative stress. This comprehensive review provides an in-depth insight of advanced progress made toward the utilization of GCNMs in plant science fields as well as current challenges. Future perspectives on a directional guide for further research in the emerging area of GCNMs-enabled phytonanotechnology are summarized at the end. This will possibly provide an important reference role for further study and rational application of GCNMs in agriculture.

As important physiological regulators, peptides have been used in many fields including medicine, cosmetics, healthcare products, animal nutrition and health, and plant nutrition and protection. In recent years, peptides have become a popular research subject in plant protection as antimicrobial and immune inducers, plant growth regulators, insecticides, and herbicides for their extensive raw material sources, excellent activity, and ideal environmental compatibility. This paper briefly introduces peptide research progress, presents an overview of peptide studies in plant protection, and summarizes the application of the peptides in plant protection and prospects for peptides as green agrochemicals.

Salt stress remains a significant challenge for crop growth and food security. The development of effective analytical tools for salt stress-related studies is of great importance. Recently, Yang and Yin et al. have developed a novel biosensor that effectively traces salt stress in plants, based on salt-induced molecular J-aggregation and the corresponding changes in fluorescence signals.

Synthetic chemicals have been widely used in modern agriculture as fertilizer, plant growth regulators and pesticides. Although the chemical inputs improved the crop production, it is well known about their negative effects, such as environmental residues in water, soil and animals, pest resistance and resurgence and the residues in agricultural produces. The demands for safer food and more friendly environment are now more preferred by humankind in the world. Microbes have already become an alternate for chemical inputs in some aspects in agriculture. The microbes can produce very diverse volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) which play important roles in the interactions between plant and microbes, or among intraspecies or interspecies of microbes. Many mVOCs showed diverse agroactivities, such as insecticidal, bactericidal, fungicidal, herbicidal, plant growth promotion and abiotic stress-tolerance inducing activities. The agroactive mVOCs have diverse structure-types, such as alkane, alkenes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acid, esters and lactones, ethers, aromatic ring, terpenes, heterocycles, sulphur-containing VOCs. The promising agroactive properties make it possible to apply mVOCs and their producing microorganisms or synthetic mimics or agroactive mVOCs in crop protection, and so this review focuses on the chemical diversity, agroactivities, and potential application of mVOCs.

The traditional synthesis of nano silver chloride involves chemical precipitation or physical methods. Due to the hazardous substances generated during the synthesis, it can cause environmental pollution. In this study, a green and facile method is described to biosynthesize nano-silver chloride with excellent antibacterial activity via in situ reduction of Ag ⁺ using the extract of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Compared with previous reports, the minimal inhibition concentration (MIC) against Escherichia coli (E. coli) is 3.0 μg/mL, which is 2– to 800-fold higher than that of nano silver chloride. Subsequent in vitro studies involving agricultural bacteria such as Ralstonia solanacearum (R. solanacearum) revealed a 92.95% antibacterial rate when the concentration of nano-silver chloride was 2.0 μg/mL. Previous studies of antibacterial activity of nano-silver chloride focused more on the basic antibacterial properties without describing its antibacterial molecular mechanisms. The microscopic investigations and DNA damage experiments indicated that the nano-silver chloride adsorbed to the bacterial surface, leading to cell wall rupture, DNA damage, and cytoplasmic leakage. In addition, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy indicated the synthesis of reactive oxygen species (·OH, ·O²⁻ and ¹O₂) in the bacteria. Our study provides evidence supporting the use of nano-silver chloride as an antibacterial agent in agriculture, and theoretical insight into the antibacterial mechanism thereof.