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Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others. The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all pesticide use globally. Most pesticides are used as plant protection products, which in general protect plants from weeds, fungi, or insects. In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms), and microbes that destroy property, cause nuisance, or spread disease, or are disease vectors. Along with these benefits, pesticides also have drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other species.
Herbicides, also commonly known as weed killers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds. Selective herbicides control specific weed species while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed, while non-selective herbicides kill plants indiscriminately. The combined effects of herbicides, nitrogen fertilizer, and improved cultivars has increased yields of major crops by 3x to 6x from 1900 to 2000.
Pesticide resistance describes the decreased susceptibility of a pest population to a pesticide that was previously effective at controlling the pest. Pest species evolve pesticide resistance via natural selection: the most resistant specimens survive and pass on their acquired heritable changes traits to their offspring. If a pest has resistance then that will reduce the pesticide's efficacy – efficacy and resistance are inversely related.
Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, which acts by inhibiting the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSP). It is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crops. Its herbicidal effectiveness was discovered by Monsanto chemist John E. Franz in 1970. Monsanto brought it to market for agricultural use in 1974 under the trade name Roundup. Monsanto's last commercially relevant United States patent expired in 2000.
Fungicides are pesticides used to kill parasitic fungi or their spores. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality, and profit. Fungicides are used both in agriculture and to fight fungal infections in animals. Fungicides are also used to control oomycetes, which are not taxonomically/genetically fungi, although sharing similar methods of infecting plants. Fungicides can either be contact, translaminar or systemic. Contact fungicides are not taken up into the plant tissue and protect only the plant where the spray is deposited. Translaminar fungicides redistribute the fungicide from the upper, sprayed leaf surface to the lower, unsprayed surface. Systemic fungicides are taken up and redistributed through the xylem vessels. Few fungicides move to all parts of a plant. Some are locally systemic, and some move upward. Most fungicides that can be bought retail are sold in liquid form, the active ingredient being present at 0.08% in weaker concentrates, and as high as 0.5% for more potent fungicides. Fungicides in powdered form are usually around 90% sulfur.
Paraquat (trivial name; ), or N,N′-dimethyl-4,4′-bipyridinium dichloride (systematic name), also known as methyl viologen, is an organic compound with the chemical formula [(C6H7N)2]Cl2. It is classified as a viologen, a family of redox-active heterocycles of similar structure. This salt is one of the most widely used herbicides. It is quick-acting and non-selective, killing green plant tissue on contact. It is also toxic (lethal) to human beings and animals due to its redox activity, which produces superoxide anions. It has been linked to the development of Parkinson's disease and is banned in 58 countries.
Atrazine is a chlorinated herbicide of the triazine class. It is used to prevent pre-emergence broadleaf weeds in crops such as maize (corn), soybean and sugarcane and on turf, such as golf courses and residential lawns. Atrazine's primary manufacturer is Syngenta and it is one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States, Canadian, and Australian agriculture. Its use was banned in the European Union in 2004, when the EU found groundwater levels exceeding the limits set by regulators, and Syngenta could not show that this could be prevented nor that these levels were safe.
Diquat is the ISO common name for an organic dication that, as a salt with counterions such as bromide or chloride is used as a contact herbicide that produces desiccation and defoliation. Diquat is no longer approved for use in the European Union, although its registration in many other countries including the USA is still valid.
Glufosinate is a naturally occurring broad-spectrum herbicide produced by several species of Streptomyces soil bacteria. Glufosinate is a non-selective, contact herbicide, with some systemic action. Plants may also metabolize bialaphos and phosalacine, other naturally occurring herbicides, directly into glufosinate. The compound irreversibly inhibits glutamine synthetase, an enzyme necessary for the production of glutamine and for ammonia detoxification, giving it antibacterial, antifungal and herbicidal properties. Application of glufosinate to plants leads to reduced glutamine and elevated ammonia levels in tissues, halting photosynthesis and resulting in plant death.
John Edward Casida was an American entomologist, toxicologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
4-Hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) inhibitors are a class of herbicides that prevent growth in plants by blocking 4-Hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase, an enzyme in plants that breaks down the amino acid tyrosine into molecules that are then used by plants to create other molecules that plants need. This process of breakdown, or catabolism, and making new molecules from the results, or biosynthesis, is something all living things do. HPPD inhibitors were first brought to market in 1980, although their mechanism of action was not understood until the late 1990s. They were originally used primarily in Japan in rice production, but since the late 1990s have been used in Europe and North America for corn, soybeans, and cereals, and since the 2000s have become more important as weeds have become resistant to glyphosate and other herbicides. Genetically modified crops are under development that include resistance to HPPD inhibitors. There is a pharmaceutical drug on the market, nitisinone, that was originally under development as an herbicide as a member of this class, and is used to treat an orphan disease, type I tyrosinemia.
Quinclorac is an organic compound with the formula {C9NH4Cl2CO2H. A colorless solid, it is soluble in hydrocarbons and alcohols. The compound is the carboxylic acid of 3,7-dichloroquinoline.
Evolutionary toxicology is an emerging field of science focusing on shifts in population genetics caused by the introduction of contaminants to the environment. Research in evolutionary toxicology combines aspects of ecotoxicology, population genetics, evolutionary biology, and conservation genetics to form a unified field investigating genome and population wide changes in genetic diversity, allelic frequency, gene flow, and mutation rates. Each of these areas of investigation is characterized as one of four central tenets to the field, proposed and described in detail by John Bickham in 2011.
Fomesafen is the ISO common name for an organic compound used as an herbicide. It acts by inhibiting the enzyme protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) which is necessary for chlorophyll synthesis. Soybeans naturally have a high tolerance to fomesafen, via metabolic disposal by glutathione S-transferase. As a result, soy is the most common crop treated with fomesafen, followed by other beans and a few other crop types. It is not safe for maize/corn or other Poaceae.
Fluazifop is the common name used by the ISO for an organic compound that is used as a selective herbicide. The active ingredient is the 2R enantiomer at its chiral centre and this material is known as fluazifop-P when used in that form. More commonly, it is sold as its butyl ester, fluazifop-P butyl with the brand name Fusilade.
Indaziflam is a preemergent herbicide especially for grass control in tree and bush crops.
Aclonifen is a diphenyl ether herbicide which has been used in agriculture since the 1980s. Its mode of action has been uncertain, with evidence suggesting it might interfere with carotenoid biosynthesis or inhibit the enzyme protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO). Both mechanisms could result in the observed whole-plant effect of bleaching and the compound includes chemical features that are known to result in PPO effects, as seen with acifluorfen, for example. In 2020, further research revealed that aclonifen has a different and novel mode of action, targeting solanesyl diphosphate synthase which would also cause bleaching.
Sethoxydim is a postemergent herbicide for control of grass weeds in a wide variety of horticultural crops.
Tribenuron in the form of tribenuron-methyl is a sulfonylurea herbicide. Its mode of action is the inhibition of acetolactate synthase, group 2 of the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee's classification scheme.
Chlorsulfuron is an ALS inhibitor herbicide, and is a sulfonylurea compound. It was discovered by George Levitt in February 1976 while working at DuPont, which was the patent assignee.
References
- 1 2 Grant RL, Combs AB, Acosta D (2010). "Experimental Models for the Investigation of Toxicological Mechanisms". In McQueen CA (ed.). Comprehensive Toxicology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Elsevier. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-08-046884-6.
- ↑ "Mechanisms and mode of dioxin action" (PDF). US EPA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
- ↑ Ng, Wai-Leung; Krystyna M. Kazmierczak; Gregory T. Robertson; Raymond Gilmour; Malcolm E. Winkler (Jan 2003). "Transcriptional Regulation and Signature Patterns Revealed by Microarray Analyses of Streptococcus Pneumoniae R6 Challenged with Sublethal Concentrations of Translation Inhibitors". Journal of Bacteriology. 185 (1): 359–70. doi:10.1128/JB.185.1.359-370.2003. PMC 141824 . PMID 12486074.
- ↑ "Herbicide Group Classification by Mode of Action". Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. Archived from the original on 2019-01-23. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
- ↑ FRAC (Fungicide Resistance Action Committee) (March 2021). "FRAC Code List ©*2021: Fungal control agents sorted by cross resistance pattern and mode of action (including coding for FRAC Groups on product labels)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
- ↑ Weed Science Society of America. "Summary of Herbicide Mechanism of Action According to the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-08. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
- ↑ Heap, Ian. "HERBICIDE MODE OF ACTION TABLE". Archived from the original on 2022-07-05. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
- ↑ "HRAC MOA 2020 Revision Description and Master Herbicide List". Herbicide Resistance Action Committee . 2020-09-14. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
- ↑ "Interactive MoA Classification". Insecticide Resistance Action Committee . 2020-09-16. Archived from the original on 2022-08-08. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
- ↑ United States Environmental Protection Agency. "PESTICIDE REGISTRATION NOTICE (PRN) 2017-1 NOTICE TO MANUFACTURERS, PRODUCERS, PRODUCERS AND REGISTRANTS OF PESTICIDE PRODUCTS AND DEVICES" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
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