About 20 modes of action (MOAs) are utilized by commercial herbicides, and more than 20 years have passed since the last new MOA was introduced.  Rapidly increasing evolution of resistance to the current MOAs has greatly increased the need for new MOAs.  Combinatorial chemistry and gene knockout approaches have not led to commercial herbicides with new MOAs.  The question arises as to how many good herbicide MOAs exist. The relatively little that we know of the MOAs of natural phytotoxins that can effectively kill plants suggests that there are MOAs yet to be exploited.  Some of these targets are questionable because of potential toxicological problems, but many others are not.  This presentation will survey the MOAs of natural phytotoxins and will discuss strategies to maximize discovery of new MOAs with natural products and of natural products that might be used as herbicides.

Discovery of new herbicide modes of action with natural phytotoxins

248th National Meeting (2014)

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