Study of Amino Acid-Derived 3-Acyltetramic Acids as Herbicidal Agents

The growing problem of herbicide resistance necessitates the development of novel herbicidal active ingredients, together with other integrated weed management approaches. Natural products are a major source of inspiration for novel actives. In previous research, we identified a 3-acyltetramic acid of microbial origin that inhibited algal growth in marine biofilms, at least in part through inhibition of photosystem II. In this work, we demonstrate the herbicidal effect of this lead compound and construct multiple libraries to test the impact of the different substituents of the central scaffold in order to study the structure-activity relationships. Among these analogues, the highest activities were found for medium- to long-chain acyl groups and apolar secondary amino acid residues. Finally, we provide first insights into the herbicidal mechanisms and present preliminary field-trial and ecotoxicological results for TA12-Pro, the most active analogue in our library. Together, this research shows the potential of 3-acyltetramic acids for herbicide development.