Undefeated-Changing the phenamacril scaffold is not enough to beat resistant Fusarium

PLoS One. 2020 Jun 29;15(6):e0235568. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235568. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Filamentous fungi belonging to the genus Fusarium are notorious plant-pathogens that infect, damage and contaminate a wide variety of important crops. Phenamacril is the first member of a novel class of single-site acting cyanoacrylate fungicides which has proven highly effective against important members of the genus Fusarium. However, the recent emergence of field-resistant strains exhibiting qualitative resistance poses a major obstacle for the continued use of phenamacril. In this study, we synthesized novel cyanoacrylate compounds based on the phenamacril-scaffold to test their growth-inhibitory potential against wild-type Fusarium and phenamacril-resistant strains. Our findings show that most chemical modifications to the phenamacril-scaffold are associated with almost complete loss of fungicidal activity and in vitro inhibition of myosin motor domain ATPase activity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cyanoacrylates / pharmacology*
  • Drug Resistance, Fungal / drug effects*
  • Fungicides, Industrial / pharmacology*
  • Fusarium / drug effects
  • Fusarium / growth & development*

Substances

  • Cyanoacrylates
  • Fungicides, Industrial
  • phenamacril

Grants and funding

Funding was provided by The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science (grant no. 4005-00204B). M.H.T. was supported by the Volkswagen Stiftung, Niedersächsisches Vorab, Joint Lower Saxony-Israeli Research Projects (Grant VWZN3012) and D.J.M. by DFG grant MA1081/22.1.