Chemical study of insect plant interactions:a contribution to biorational control of crop pests

• Grant number: 17/50452-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Agreement: BBSRC, UKRI ; Newton Fund, with FAPESP as a partner institution in Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Maria Fátima das Graças Fernandes da Silva
• Grantee: Maria Fátima das Graças Fernandes da Silva
• Principal researcher abroad: Toby Johann Anselm Bruce
• Institution abroad: Keele University, England
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Brazilian import of pesticides hit a record high in 2015 and 2016. Pesticides are the second most important item in the import account of agricultural sector, behind only fertiliser. This information demonstrated the great need for a program for the minor use of pesticides. This proposal intends to respond to these needs, which are classified as strategic in the public policy of the Federal and State Government documents. Economic, social and environmental benefits to be achieved are related to the themes Agriculture and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity. For the implementation of this proposal researchers from different areas were aggregated into networks to transform your agricultures into a model for the control of pests with a low environmental impacto Our recently studies on bacteria, fungus and insects suggested that the flavonoids play a role in the plant-pathogen interaction. Therefore, the search for novel semisynthetic modifications of some flavonoids has attracted our attention. One strategy would be to promote the metal chelation of flavonoids. Because flavonoids activity is attributed to the generation of reduced metabolites that are involved in its antioxidant activity, it is expected that the Mg-flavonoids complex, in which the flavonoid ligand would be more accessible to oxidation, exhibits greater antioxidant activity than free one. Using this strategy we prepared the [Mg(flv)2(phen)] complex, where flv is flavonoid and phen is 1,10'-phenanthroline. In summary, the main objective ofthe project is to develop a long-term collaboration using the expertise of the Keele University, UFSCar research groups to integrate Biorational Control of Pest-Insect for the design, production, use and evaluation of high-value of the flavonoid complexes and nanoformulations of bioinsecticides, based on a bioeconomy model for the control of pests with a low environmental impact. (AU)