Defense activators as an alternative to pesticides for controlling turfgrass diseases

Civitas是一种食品级异链烷烃的混合物，与Harmonizer（一种螯合金属化合物）组合使用，这种组合在这里称为C+H。这两种化合物通过激活或增强植物的抗病性来控制植物疾病，但基因表达分析表明，这是通过不同的途径发生的，因此不同的基因受到影响。与单独的Civitas或Harmonizer相比，C+H在增加抗病性方面具有相加或协同效应。C+H已在加拿大和美国注册，用于控制草坪草病害。在草坪草中使用C+H的轶事证据表明，它可以为植物提供多种益处，例如增加胁迫耐受性和促进根和叶的生长。因此，C+H可能不仅仅是控制疾病。这一点尤其重要，因为任何新的功效或活性声明的科学基础都必须得到证明。这项研究旨在验证传闻中观察到的改善疗效或增强的有益活性，并将对构成Civitas的部分进行更深入的检查，因为可能有一些部分显示出更大的疗效和更少的非目标效应。这些分析的一部分将是一个基因组规模的基因表达检查后，C+H的应用到植物。这些结果可以用来证明C+H的新用途，从而导致该产品的生产和销售增加，该产品将能够明确地被公司推广为为最终用户提供更多的利益。

Civitas is a mixture of food-grade isoparaffins that is used in combination with Harmonizer, which is a chelated metal compound, and this combination is referred to here at C+H. Both compounds control plant diseases by activating or enhancing disease resistance in plants, but gene expression analysis has shown that this occurs through different pathways and thus different genes are affected. C+H has an additive or synergistic effect in increasing disease resistance compared to Civitas or Harmonizer alone. C+H has been registered in Canada and the U.S.A. for the control of turfgrass diseases. Anecdotal evidence by users of C+H in turfgrass indicates that it may provide multiple benefits to plants, such as increased stress tolerance and promotion of root and foliar growth. Therefore, C+H may have more applications than just controlling diseases. This is especially important to verify because the scientific foundation for any new claims of efficacy or activity must be demonstrated. This research seeks to validate the anecdotally observed improved efficacy or enhanced beneficial activity, and also will make a deeper examination of fractions that make up Civitas, since there potentially are portions that show greater efficacy with fewer non-target effects. Part of these analyses will be an examination of gene expression on a genome scale following application of C+H to plants. The results can be used to justify new uses for C+H, hence resulting in greater production and sales of the product that will be able to clearly promoted by the company as providing more benefits to the end users.