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For farmers, wheat and wild oats are natural opposites. One
is the most important cereal crop on our planet and serves
as the raw material for many foods, while the other is a weed
that mainly infests wheat fields and competes with the cereal
for room to grow.
Modern crop protection provides farmers with the logical
solution in the form of herbicides that only affect the weed,
allowing the wheat to grow and flourish without impediment.
At first this solution appears straightforward, yet deeper
consideration reveals a puzzle. Why should a product only
attack the weed and not the crop? This apparent paradox is
the result of extensive scientific research. For more than
30 years, biochemists have been investigating the physiology
of plants and searching their enzymatic systems for characteristics
that differentiate crops such as wheat, rice, corn or barley
from their weed competitors.
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Using high-throughput screening,
hundreds of thousands of substances can be tested each
year for their potential as safeners in various herbicides
for key crops. |
Optimizing herbicides
The results of this work led to the development of additives
for herbicides that are rapidly taken up by a crop's metabolic
system, strengthening its natural defensive mechanisms against
foreign substances and causing the herbicide to metabolize more
quickly. These additives are called safeners, a name that clearly
reflects their protective function - albeit one from which weeds
do not benefit.
In recent years, major advances have been made in safener
technology. For example, two substances researched in Frankfurt,
Germany are combined with herbicides that can be used for
a large number of different crops. Without safener technology,
many of the most successful weed control agents would have
had no chance in the market.
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Corinna van Almsick uses
molecular-biology-based diagnosis to discover new safeners
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Multitalented additives
The acquisition of Aventis CropScience
has taken Bayer to a position of global leadership in this
field. Combining Bayer's new, promising herbicidal active
ingredients with safener substances from Aventis' research
opens up new perspectives for Bayer CropScience.
A whole series of substances that are believed
to have safener properties is scheduled for further testing,
promising new advances in crop protection. Scientists are
working on safeners that should improve on what has so far
been one of the main shortcomings of these substances: their
limited spectrum of use. In the past, safeners have always
been highly specialized substances with very limited applications,
each one usually being suitable for only one crop and one
herbicide.
This is about to change. Tomorrow's safeners
will be suitable for both seed treatment and application to
soil and plant leaves, as well as supporting various herbicides
and exhibiting efficacy in several crops. One such multitalented
substance recently developed by Bayer researchers is isoxadifen-diethyl.
It protects rice, corn, sugar cane and wheat against various
herbicides.
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