Crop specificity of herbicide safeners
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Agriculture Food and Rural Development
Abstract
Herbicide safeners are a diverse group of agrochemicals used to enhance tolerance to selective herbicides in large-grained cereal crops. This effect is not observed in dicotyledenous plants and weeds (DeRidder et al., 2002). While their exact mode of action remains to be determined, safeners appear to exert their protective action through the induction of xenobiotic detoxifying enzymes and associated transport proteins collectively termed the xenome (Edwards, 2010). While safeners only invoke enhanced herbicide tolerance in cereals, their inducing activity toward selective xenome components has been reported in model dicots, notably in Arabidopsis and in grass weeds (DeRidder et al., 2002). This suggests the signalling systems safeners interact with are conserved in plants, but result in different outcomes in a species-specific manner. In addition, differing safener chemistries are used in conjunction with specific combinations of herbicides and cereal crops. This suggests that safener perception in plants can be compound specific.
In this project a combination of biochemical and molecular genetic approaches will be employed to study the interaction of specific safener chemistries with the xenome regulatory pathways of a range of crops and model species. Emphasis will be placed on identifying core signalling pathways that are conserved in safening, as well as the components that confer species selectivity in the recognition of contemporary chemistries.
At the conclusion of the study, the relationship between herbicide safeners and natural signalling mechanisms may be determined and then it would be possible to formulate hypotheses as to the common point at which herbicide safeners act to stimulate multiple signalling pathways, which can inevitably lead to better and safer design of herbicide safeners aiming at the sustainable intensification of agriculture.
References
DeRidder, B. P. 'Induction Of Glutathione S-Transferases In Arabidopsis By Herbicide Safeners'. PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 130.3 (2002): 1497-1505.
Edwards, Robert. 'New Perspectives On The Metabolism And Detoxification Of Synthetic Compounds In Plants'. Plant Ecophysiology 8 (2010): 125-148.
In this project a combination of biochemical and molecular genetic approaches will be employed to study the interaction of specific safener chemistries with the xenome regulatory pathways of a range of crops and model species. Emphasis will be placed on identifying core signalling pathways that are conserved in safening, as well as the components that confer species selectivity in the recognition of contemporary chemistries.
At the conclusion of the study, the relationship between herbicide safeners and natural signalling mechanisms may be determined and then it would be possible to formulate hypotheses as to the common point at which herbicide safeners act to stimulate multiple signalling pathways, which can inevitably lead to better and safer design of herbicide safeners aiming at the sustainable intensification of agriculture.
References
DeRidder, B. P. 'Induction Of Glutathione S-Transferases In Arabidopsis By Herbicide Safeners'. PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 130.3 (2002): 1497-1505.
Edwards, Robert. 'New Perspectives On The Metabolism And Detoxification Of Synthetic Compounds In Plants'. Plant Ecophysiology 8 (2010): 125-148.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Robert Edwards (Primary Supervisor) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BB/N504063/1 | 01/10/2015 | 30/09/2019 | |||
| 1665996 | Studentship | BB/N504063/1 | 01/10/2015 | 30/09/2019 |
| Description | This project falls under BBSRC's strategic priority: Agriculture and Food Security relating to sustainably enhancing agriculture production. Chemical crop protection is one well-established technology to support that, being responsible for up to 40% increase of global crop production compared to yields achieved with organic methods (Clough et al.1998). The world's growing population along with climate change and herbicide resistance create an even greater demand for the design safe and environmentally-friendly crop protection chemicals which stems from attempts to elucidate mode of action and selectivity, like this project. The project's focus was safeners, non-toxic agrochemicals that enable the safe use of more potent herbicides by selectively safeguarding the crops of interest. New knowledge generated: This project looked at how the activity of one safener was manifested in two monocot crops (one responsive, one unresponsive) and managed to shed light on what might constitute selectivity, which is the main focus of safener research. Safener metabolism was enhanced in the responsive crop and, as the project showed, this was mainly due to the activation of the detoxification machinery of the plant rather than a specific safener metabolite. This finding challenges the view that safeners can act as prodrugs, New research questions opened: Based on the results of this project, safener research needs to focus on establishing the detoxification networks present in different crops, which includes identifying the necessary players for detoxification against a certain herbicide, how these are activated and in what order. Transcriptome analysis in the same crop with different safeners and in different crops with the same safener will help in identifying how safener chemistries are inducing protective effects in the crops and will be the first next step for unravelling the safener induced signalling pathway. The project has also shown that is necessary for future research to focus on safeners and herbicides applied together since the protective effect is mostly prevalent in co-application. Another question to be answered is whether safeners act by inducing a systemic signal or they need to be present in cells to prime them for herbicide metabolism, which would also include determining any tissue-specific actions of safeners. |
| Exploitation Route | Researchers in academia, research institutes, agrochemical companies can all benefit from the findings of this project. The new knowledge and research questions generated can lead studies on safener selectivity and have partly shown the gaps in literature and current understanding in the sector. The findings are also interesting from a regulatory point of view, as the project has established a robust method for testing the activity of chemicals used in agriculture which extend further than just herbicides. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals |
| Description | Studentship |
| Amount | £22,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Bayer |
| Department | Bayer CropScience Ltd |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 10/2019 |
| Description | Poster Presentation at Bayer (Monheim) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Phd Workshop for BBSRC funded students, further funded by Bayer. Apart from students, I had the opportunity to present to and interact with people working in industry, who gave me invaluable advice for troubleshooting and future experiments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Poster Presentation at conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I presented a poster of my work at the N8 Agrifood Conference 2017 at Durham. My audience was mainly lecturers/principal investigators from the university as well as people working in agricultural companies. The main impact from the presentation was informing people not aware of crop protection about how important it is and how my project can make a difference as well as getting new ideas about future experiments and new insights to the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.dur.ac.uk/dccit/events/?eventno=34546 |
| Description | Presentation at Bayer (Frankfurt) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of my project at Bayer CropScience in Frankfurt. Mainly attended by lab leaders in the company as well as some higher executives. Took place twice (2016 and 2017) and in both cases people engaged with the project a lot by asking questions or clarifications as some of them had worked in a similar field. The main purpose was to update colleagues about my project but there was a lot of interest for participation/involvement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |