Method for protecting plants

US6031153A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Novartis AG · CH

Inventors

• John A. Ryals · Durham, US
• Leslie B. Friedrich · Cary, US
• Scott Joseph Uknes · Apex, US
• Antonio Molina-Fernandez · Blanca, ES
• Wilhelm Ruess · Pfeffingen, CH
• Gertrude Knauf-Beiter · Müllheim, DE
• Ruth Beatrice Kung · Allschwil, CH
• Helmut Kessmann · Lörrach, DE
• Michael Oostendorp · Basel, CH

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 23, 1997
• Grant date: Feb 29, 2000
• Expiry date: Dec 23, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A01N65/00
• WIPO field: Basic materials chemistry
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

The present invention concerns a method of protecting plants from pathogen attack through synergistic disease resistance attained by applying a conventional microbicide to immunomodulated plants. Immunomodulated plants are those in which SAR is activated and are therefore referred to as "SAR-on" plants. Immunomodulated plants may be provided in at least three different ways: by applying to plants a chemical inducer of SAR such as BTH, INA, or SA; through a selective breeding program based on constitutive expression of SAR genes and/or a disease-resistant phenotype; or by transforming plants with one or more SAR genes such as a functional form of the NIM1 gene. By concurrently applying a microbicide to an immunomodulated plant, disease resistance is unexpectedly synergistically enhanced; i.e., the level of disease resistance is greater than the expected additive levels of disease resistance.