Coumarins for durable and sustainable plant protection

大豆是世界上最重要的农作物之一。其主要病害为亚洲大豆锈病、猝死综合症和菌核病(白霉病)。在大豆主产区(美国、巴西、阿根廷)，这些疾病每年造成数十亿欧元的产量损失。抗性优良品种很难获得，栽培措施和化学或生物防治措施无效或非常昂贵。因此，迫切需要大豆病害防治的替代措施。东五味子内酯、千金藤内酯和艾拉平是抗微生物香豆素，它们对许多植物的抗病能力很重要。它们几乎没有出现在大豆中。我们的初步研究表明，这三种香豆素能有效地防治上述大豆病害。因此，在与巴斯夫植物科学公司GmbH的合作项目中，我们的目标是设计和优化大豆植株，使其能够合成和积累东五味子内酯、延胡索内酯和燕麦草素，以降低对亚洲大豆锈病、猝死综合症和菌核病的易感性。这些植物可以支持大豆生产中减少杀虫剂的使用。

Soybean is one of the most important crops worldwide. Its major diseases are Asian soybean rust, sudden death syndrome, and Sclerotinia stem rot (white mold). In the major soybean growing areas (USA, Brazil, Argentina), these diseases cause annual yield losses of several billion Euros a year. Resistant elite varieties are hardly available and cultivation practices and chemical or biological control measures are ineffective or highly expensive. Therefore, alternative measures for soybean disease control are urgently needed. Scopoletin, scoparone and ayapin are antimicrobial coumarins that are important for the disease resistance of many plants. They are almost absent from soybean. Our pilot studies demonstrate that the three coumarins can effectively fight the above-mentioned soybean diseases. Therefore, in a collaborative project with BASF Plant Science Company GmbH we aim at engineering and optimizing soybean plants with capacity to synthesize and accumulate scopoletin, scoparone, and ayapin for reducing susceptibility to Asian soybean rust, sudden death syndrome, and Sclerotinia stem rot. These plants can support reduced pesticide use in soybean production.