Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of strigolactone derivatives for crop enhancement applications

Abstract Strigolactones are a family of plant secondary metabolites whose first member strigol was isolated in 1966 from the root exudates of cotton and identified as the germination inducer for the parasitic weeds of Striga and Orobanche species. Since 2008 the role of strigolactones as a new class of phytohormones has emerged and their role in controlling plant architecture and plant development has been discovered. Recently, their potential to mitigate abiotic stress such as drought or nutrient starvation and to increase yield has attracted even more attention for application in sustainable agriculture. In this context, Syngenta has developed versatile chemical methodologies to efficiently access natural strigolactones as well as new synthetic derivatives and evaluated them in relevant in vitro and in vivo biological platforms.