No abstract

Sulfones are one of the most important classes of agricultural fungicides. To discover new lead compounds with high antibacterial activity, a series of new sulfone derivatives were designed and synthesized by introducing the aroxymethyl moiety into the scaffold of 1,3,4-oxadiazole/thiadiazole sulfones. Antibacterial activities against three phytopathogens (Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, Ralstonia solanacearum, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri.) were assayed in vitro. As compared to the control of commercial fungicides and some reported sulfone fungicides, seven compounds 5I-1–5I-7 exerted remarkably higher activities with EC50 values ranging from 0.45–1.86 μg/mL against X. oryzae and 1.97–20.15 μg/mL against R. solanacearum. Exhilaratingly, 5I-1, 5I-2 and 5I-4 displayed significant in vivo activity against X. oryzae with protective effect of 90.4%, 77.7%, and 81.1% at 200 μg/mL, respectively, much higher than that exhibited by Bismerthiazol (25.6%) and Thiadiazole-copper (32.0%). And the differential phytotoxicity of active derivatives was preliminarily checked. The results demonstrated that derivative of 2-aroxymethyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole/thiadiazole sulfone can serve as potential alternative bactericides for the management of plant bacterial diseases.

Chiral α-aminophosphonates were synthesized using (R) or (S)-1-phenylethylamine in the presence of BF 3 •Et 2 O under microwave irradiation in moderate to good yields. The new compounds were identified by 1 H NMR, 19 F NMR, IR and elemental analysis. Their antifungal activities were evaluated and some compounds were found to exhibit excellent antifungal activities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on antifungal activity of chiral α-aminophosphonates containing fluorine moiety.

Because of resistance to current insecticides and to environmental, health, and regulatory concerns, naturally occurring compounds and their derivatives are of increasing interest for the development of new insecticidal compounds against vectors of disease-causing pathogens. Fifty-eight compounds, either extracted and purified from plants native to China or synthetic analogs of curcumin, were evaluated for both their larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti (L.) and their ability to inhibit binding of cholesterol to Ae. aegypti sterol carrier protein-2 in vitro. Of the compounds tested, curcumin analogs seem especially promising in that of 24 compounds tested five were inhibitors of Ae. aegyptisterol carrier protein-2 with EC50 values ranging from 0.65 to 62.87 μM, and three curcumin analogs exhibited larvicidal activity against fourth instar Ae. aegypti larvae with LC50 values ranging from 17.29 to 27.90 μM. Adding to the attractiveness of synthetic curcumin analogs is the relative ease of synthesizing a large diversity of compounds; only a small fraction of such diversity has been sampled in this study.

Bacterial canker disease caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) is a devastating disease of kiwifruit, which is severely limiting the development of the kiwifruit industry. Ethylicin is a broad-spectrum plant biomimetic fungicide. However, its application in the control of kiwifruit bacterial canker is rarely reported, and the mechanism of ethylicin on Psa remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of ethylicin on Psa in vitro and in vivo and found that ethylicin can inhibit the growth of Psa and prevent the cankering in the plant stem. Mechanism investigation indicated that ethylicin acted by limiting the movement of Psa, destroying the cell membrane of Psa, and inhibiting the formation of Psa biofilm. In addition, it was also found through transcriptomics research that ethylicin can up-regulate the expression of genes related to protein export and biofilm formation–Pseudomonas aeruginosa and down-regulate the expression of genes related to flagellar assembly in Psa. This study concluded that ethylicin can effectively inhibit Psa growth, and it could help to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of ethylicin inhibiting Psa and provide practical data for the application of ethylicin as a highly potent agent for controlling the bacterial canker disease of kiwifruit.