Herbicidal Screening Using Inducible Toxic Regulatory Pathways
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Solution Overview
Problem
The rapid emergence and spread of herbicide-resistant weeds pose a significant challenge in agriculture, despite efforts to rotate herbicides with different mechanisms of action, indicating a need for innovative herbicide discovery approaches that target new mechanisms of action.
Innovation Solution
A method is developed to identify herbicidal compositions by synergistically activating plant regulatory pathways using compounds that potentiate toxic plant pathways, involving the transformation of plants with recombinant polynucleotides encoding toxic regulatory peptides and the use of induction factors to express these peptides at sub-lethal levels, allowing for the identification of co-herbicides and potentiating factors that enhance herbicidal activity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing herbicides are used to control weeds, then weed control is achieved, but herbicide-resistant weeds emerge and spread
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of trying to prevent resistance by rotating herbicides with different mechanisms of action, the invention inverts the approach by directly inducing the plant's own toxic regulatory pathways through recombinant polynucleotide transformation. This creates a novel mechanism of action that bypasses existing resistance issues by forcing the plant to activate its endogenous defense pathways rather than relying on external herbicides that weeds have adapted to resist.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses an intermediary approach by introducing recombinant polynucleotides that encode toxic regulatory polypeptides. These polypeptides act as mediators that, when expressed in the plant, trigger the activation of endogenous toxic regulatory pathways. This intermediary mechanism allows for herbicidal activity through a novel pathway that is not subject to existing herbicide resistance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If recombinant polynucleotides encoding toxic regulatory polypeptides are introduced into plants, then new herbicidal mechanisms are created, but the complexity of the discovery process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies preliminary action by pre-transforming plants with recombinant polynucleotides encoding toxic regulatory polypeptides before conducting the herbicide screening. This preliminary transformation establishes the molecular machinery needed to activate endogenous toxic pathways, thereby simplifying the subsequent screening process. Instead of screening for compounds that directly inhibit weed growth, the screening focuses on compounds that can trigger the pre-installed toxic regulatory pathways, reducing the complexity of the discovery process.
3Reliability
If compounds are screened for ability to activate toxic regulatory pathways, then herbicidal compounds with new mechanisms are identified, but the screening process requires transformed plants and induction factors
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies self-service by designing a screening system where the transformed plants themselves serve as the assay substrate. The recombinant polynucleotide-transformed plants contain the molecular machinery to activate toxic regulatory pathways, and when treated with potential herbicidal compounds, they automatically indicate activity through their physiological response. This self-service approach eliminates the need for separate indicator systems or complex detection apparatus, as the plants' own response to pathway activation serves as the readout mechanism.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the development of herbicidal compositions that can effectively inhibit or kill target plants by synergistically activating toxic plant regulatory pathways, providing a new mechanism for herbicide discovery and resistance management.
Implementation Method 1
transformation with a recombinant polynucleotide encoding a toxic regulatory polypeptide under the control of an inducible promoter
Implementation Method 2
inducible promoter that can be activated by a chemical or environmental treatment
Implementation Method 3
The compounds in the herbicidal composition synergistically activate the plant regulatory pathways to inhibit the growth of or kill plant cells
Data Source
Figure 1A~1D
Figure 2A~2D
Figure 3
AI summary
The instant disclosure provides methods to identify herbicidal compositions that consist of a combination of compounds that inhibit the growth of or kill undesired plant species in a synergistic manner. Also provided are herbicidal compositions identified using this method. An exemplary screening method includes the use of: 35 (i) a polynucleotide transformed into a plant that encodes an inducible "toxic regulatory polypeptide" that confers toxicity or cell death to the plant when expressed; (ii) an induction factor exogenously applied to the transformed plant to induce expression of the endogenous toxic regulatory polypeptide to a sub-lethal extent; (iii) a co-herbicidal compound exogenously applied to the plant that is herbicidal to the transformed plant to which the induction factor has been applied due to the synergistic effects of the co-herbicide and the induced toxic regulatory polypeptide; and (iv) a "potentiating factor", that acts to potentiate the toxic regulatory pathway and causes the expression of an endogenous toxic regulatory polypeptide in a non-transformed plant.