Natural products in crop protection.

Weeds are known to cause enormous losses due to their interference in agroecosystems. Because of environmental and human health concerns, worldwide efforts are being made to reduce the heavy reliance on synthetic herbicides that are used to control weeds. In this regard the phenomenon of allelopathy, which is expressed through the release of chemicals by a plant, has been suggested to be one of the possible alternatives for achieving sustainable weed management. The use of allelopathy for controlling weeds could be either through directly utilizing natural allelopathic interactions, particularly of crop plants, or by using allelochemicals as natural herbicides. In the former case, a number of crop plants with allelopathic potential can be used as cover, smother, and green manure crops for managing weeds by making desired manipulations in the cultural practices and cropping patterns. These can be suitably rotated or intercropped with main crops to manage the target weeds (including parasitic ones) selectively. Even the crop mulch/residues can also give desirable benefits. Not only the terrestrial weeds, even allelopathy can be suitably manipulated for the management of aquatic weeds. The allelochemicals present in the higher plants as well as in the microbes can be directly used for weed management on the pattern of herbicides. Their bioefficacy can be enhanced by structural changes or the synthesis of chemical analogues based on them. Further, in order to enhance the potential of allelopathic crops, several improvements can be made with the use of biotechnology or genomics and proteomics. In this context either the production of allelochemicals can be enhanced or the transgenics with foreign genes encoding for a particular weed-suppressing allelochemical could be produced. In the former, both conventional breeding and molecular genetical techniques are useful. However, with conventional breeding being slow and difficult, more emphasis is laid on the use of modern techniques such as molecular markers and the selection aided by them. Although the progress in this regard is slow, nevertheless some promising results are coming and more are expected in future. This review attempts to discuss all these aspects of allelopathy for the sustainable management of weeds.

Allelopathic Interactions and Allelochemicals: New Possibilities for Sustainable Weed Management

Allelopathy studies the interactions among plants, fungi, algae and bacteria with the organisms living in a certain ecosystem, interactions that are mediated by the secondary metabolites produced and exuded into the environment. Consequently, allelopathy is a multidisciplinary science where ecologists, chemists, soil scientists, agronomists, biologists, plant physiologists and molecular biologists offer their skills to give an overall view of the complex interactions occurring in a certain ecosystem. As a result of these studies, applications in weed and pest management are expected in such different fields as development of new agrochemicals, cultural methods, developing of allelopathic crops with increased weed resistance, etc. The present paper will focus on the chemical aspects of allelopathy, pointing out the most recent advances in the chemicals disclosed, their mode of action and their fate in the ecosystem. Also, attention will be paid to achievements in genomics and proteomics, two emerging fields in allelopathy. Rather than being exhaustive, this paper is intended to reflect a critical vision of the current state of allelopathy and to point to future lines of research where in the authors' opinion the main advances and applications could and should be expected.

Allelopathy--a natural alternative for weed control.

Many cereals accumulate hydroxamic acids derived from 2-hydroxy-2H-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4H)-one. These benzoxazinoid hydroxamic acids are involved in defense of maize against various lepidopteran pests, most notably the European corn borer, in defense of cereals against various aphid species, and in allelopathy affecting the growth of weeds associated with rye and wheat crops. The role of benzoxazinoid hydroxamic acids in defense against fungal infection is less clear and seems to depend on the nature of the interactions at the plant-fungus interface. Efficient use of benzoxazinoid hydroxamic acids as resistance factors has been limited by the inability to selectively increase their levels at the plant growth stage and the plant tissues where they are mostly needed for a given pest. Although the biosynthesis of benzoxazinoid hydroxamic acids has been elucidated, the genes and mechanisms controlling their differential expression in different plant tissues and along plant ontogeny remain to be unraveled.

Hydroxamic acids derived from 2-hydroxy-2H-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4H)-one: key defense chemicals of cereals.

Since varietal differences in allelopathy of crops against weeds were discovered in the 1970s, much research has documented the potential that allelopathic crops offer for integrated weed management with substantially reduced herbicide rates. Research groups worldwide have identified several crop species possessing potent allelopathic interference mediated by root exudation of allelochemicals. Rice, wheat, barley and sorghum have attracted most attention. Past research focused on germplasm screening for elite allelopathic cultivars and the identification of the allelochemicals involved. Based on this, traditional breeding efforts were initiated in rice and wheat to breed agronomically acceptable, weed-suppressive cultivars with improved allelopathic interference. Promising suppressive crosses are under investigation. Molecular approaches have elucidated the genetics of allelopathy by QTL mapping which associated the trait in rice and wheat with several chromosomes and suggested the involvement of several allelochemicals. Potentially important compounds that are constitutively secreted from roots have been identified in all crop species under investigation. Biosynthesis and exudation of these metabolites follow a distinct temporal pattern and can be induced by biotic and abiotic factors. The current state of knowledge suggests that allelopathy involves fluctuating mixtures of allelochemicals and their metabolites as regulated by genotype and developmental stage of the producing plant, environment, cultivation and signalling effects, as well as the chemical or microbial turnover of compounds in the rhizosphere. Functional genomics is being applied to identify genes involved in biosynthesis of several identified allelochemicals, providing the potential to improve allelopathy by molecular breeding. The dynamics of crop allelopathy, inducible processes and plant signalling is gaining growing attention; however, future research should also consider allelochemical release mechanisms, persistence, selectivity and modes of action, as well as consequences of improved crop allelopathy on plant physiology, the environment and management strategies. Creation of weed-suppressive cultivars with improved allelopathic interference is still a challenge, but traditional breeding or biotechnology should pave the way.

Allelopathy in crop/weed interactions--an update.

Variation of DIMBOA and related compounds content in relation to the age and plant organ in maize

DIMBOA (2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one) and its derivatives are known to participate in the resistance of the Poaceae to several pests. A more efficient analytical method for the determination of these compounds is reported, employing high performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV and atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation-tandem mass spectrometric detection. The results showed that in non-injured 5 or 15-day-old plants only the glucosylated forms of DIMBOA and related compounds were present: aglycones were only detected when enzymatic deglucosylation occurred during sample work-up. Maize plants contain seven glucosides related to DIMBOA belonging to three classes: hydroxamates, lactams and N-O-methylated hydroxamate derivatives. Rarely reported dimethoxylated compounds and 8-methoxy-N-O-methylated DIMBOA are now reported in the Poaceae, the latter for the first time. Their presence and relative concentrations in 5 and 15-day-old maize roots and aerial parts are discussed. The non-hydroxamic N-O-methylated DIMBOA is present in the plant in significant quantities which exceed all others in 15-day-old maize roots. After enzymatic degradation, deglucosylation products from hydroxamates and lactams are observed. The N-O-methylated deglucosylated compounds are not observed as they are chemically degraded, most probably to benzoxazolinone derivatives. The results reported here provide a new view on the DIMBOA-related compounds present in maize plants, and the implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright (C) 1999 John Whey & Sons, Ltd.

Vincent Cambier

Papers

Variation of DIMBOA and related compounds content in relation to the age and plant organ in maize

Non-injured maize contains several 1,4-benzoxazin-3-one related compounds but only as glucoconjugates