Chemical Genomics of the Plant Immune System in Arabidopsis thaliana and Development of Novel Non-Biocidal Reduced Risk-Pesticides

A major strategy of crop disease control has been the use of pesticides. Conventional pesticides typically rely on toxic activity leading to environmental problems. By high-throughput screening we identified over 100 drug-like compounds that induce natural plant immune responses in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis). Such synthetic elicitors will facilitate the design of reduced-risk pesticides triggering the plant’s inherent immune system without the need to be toxic to other organisms. In addition, we are using synthetic elicitors as molecular probes to dissect regulatory processes controlling plant immune responses. mRNAseq analyses of synthetic elicitor-triggered responses in Arabidopsis combined with reverse genetics allowed us to uncover several novel components of the plant immune system.  Constitutive activation of plant immunity by mutations or defense-inducing chemicals generally tends to reduce plant growth. We surprisingly found that low doses of one synthetic elicitor enhance growth of roots and aerial parts of Arabidopsis and tomato while high concentrations inhibit plant growth. Taking advantage of this phenomenon, we will design novel chemistry-based strategies to increase crop vigor and yield, while boosting immunity.