Cláudia Godoy, an expert in Asian soybean rust, from Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, describes it as an interesting technology. ‘This bifunctional dermaseptin–thanatin dipeptide seems to work as a natural sticker. The efficiency itself is not high enough for disease control but it could replace synthetic stickers,’ she adds.

‘It is a remarkable approach, but many aspects, apart from the economical cost that is always relevant when talking about crop protection, have to be studied in more detail to really promote such an approach as a new way to prevent crop diseases,’ comments Eduard Bardaji, an expert in antimicrobial peptides, from the University of Girona, Spain. ‘Long-term binding studies should be extended and detailed because this could be a major competitive advantage for the success of this new approach.’

The team has only tested the peptides in the lab but is currently negotiating with a peptide production company to manufacture them on a larger scale. They also plan to develop the system to fight even bigger pests. ‘We would like to combine the thanatin peptide, the one that mediates the attachment to crops, with a peptide that kills chewing insects,’ says Conrath. ‘If everything goes right with our technology – approval by authorities etc – we will have a novel, broad-spectrum alternative for use in agriculture.’

References
P Schwinges et al, Green Chem., 2019, 21, 2316 (DOI: 10.1039/c9gc00457b)

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