Novel pesticidal or fungicidal compounds against organisms containing Chitin and screening method to identify them

Currently, sustainable agriculture is moving forward to provide new advances and solutions to overcome the impact of pathogenic organisms' resistance to pesticides and the crop losses this can cause. In this sense a Spanish university has developed a new method to identify compounds against pathogenic organisms that contain Chitin. Chitin is one of the most important biopolymers in nature. It is mainly produced by fungi, arthropods (crustaceans and insects) and nematodes. The compounds are novel inhibitors of the deacetylation enzyme (CDA) that affect chitin-containing organisms. By blocking the action of this key-enzyme, plants can start their immune defence response. The university has already identified 20 novel compounds with a demonstrable CDA inhibitory activity using this method and the fungicidal, arthropocidal and / or nematicidal activities of said compounds could be confirmed. These CDA inhibitor compounds have potential for the control of phytopathogenic fungi by stimulating the defenses of the plant. They also have potential for arthropod control through an insecticidal action and they have the potential to control nematodes by a nematicidal action. The researchers behind this development belong to a Microbiology and Crop Protection research group and the Molecular Topology and Drug Design Research Unit of the University. Together, they constitute an interdisciplinary team with knowledge in Microbiology, Pharmacy, Physical Chemistry, and Chemistry. They are looking for companies from the chemical or pharma industry to license the technology in order to bring this innovation to the market. Alternatively they are looking for a technical cooperation agreement where they can provide their expertise in order to collaborate with scientists on further development and improvements of the technology.