AgPlenus announces discovery of a new mode of action for fungicides against wheat disease

In Israel, AgPlenus, a global specialist in designing and developing novel sustainable crop protection products and a subsidiary of Evogene, announced the discovery of a novel Mode of Action (MoA) active against Zymoseptoria tritici, the fungal pathogen responsible for Septoria tritici blotch (STB), one of the most devastating diseases affecting wheat crops globally. 

Through extensive virtual screening of large compound libraries and subsequent experimental testing, the company has already identified promising compounds (small molecules) that effectively inhibit fungal growth.

With encouraging preliminary results, the program is now moving into its next phase, which involves further optimization of the discovered molecules using the ActiveSearch tool. The aim is to enhance their performance and explore potential collaborations and further development to potentially generate a novel effective fungicide.

“I am encouraged by the results obtained by utilizing the various tools in ChemPass AI for Ag in our Zymoseptoria program and the progress the program has made,” said Dan Gelvan, CEO of AgPlenus. “With increasing fungicide resistance posing challenges to wheat yields worldwide, the identification of these novel targets is timely.”

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