(19) TZZ ¥Z_T (11) EP 2 958 430 B1 (12) EUROPEAN PATENT SPECIFICATION (45) Date of publication and mention (51) Int Cl.: of the grant of the patent: A01N 43/653 (2006.01) A01P 15/00 (2006.01) 27.12.2017 Bulletin 2017/52 (86) International application number: (21) Application number: 14704798.9 PCT/EP2014/052986 (22) Date of filing: 17.02.2014 (87) International publication number: WO 2014/128069 (28.08.2014 Gazette 2014/35) (54) USE OF PROTHIOCONAZOLE TO INDUCE HOST DEFENCE RESPONSES VERWENDUNG VON PROTHIOCONAZOL ZUR INDUZIERUNG VON WIRTSABWEHRREAKTIONEN UTILISATION DE PROTHIOCONAZOLE POUR INDUIRE DES RÉPONSES DE DÉFENSE HÔTE (84) Designated Contracting States: • KAUSSMANN, Martin AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB Sacramento, California 95864 (US) GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO • GILLE, Sascha PL PT RO RS SE SI SK SM TR 65719 Hofheim am Taunus (DE) • KNOBLOCH, Thomas (30) Priority: 19.02.2013 EP 13155868 F-69380 Chatillon d’Azergues (FR) (43) Date of publication of application: (74) Representative: BIP Patents 30.12.2015 Bulletin 2015/53 c/o Bayer Intellectual Property GmbH Alfred-Nobel-Straße 10 (73) Proprietor: Bayer CropScience Aktiengesellschaft 40789 Monheim am Rhein (DE) 40789 Monheim (DE) (56) References cited: (72) Inventors: WO-A2-2010/015337 •TIETJEN,Klaus 40764 Langenfeld (DE) • D. R. WALTERS ET AL: "Controlling crop • SUTY-HEINZE, Anne diseases using induced resistance: challenges 40764 Langenfeld (DE) for the future", JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL • GOERTZ, Andreas BOTANY, vol. 64, no. 5, 5 February 2013 Gold River, CA 95670 (US) (2013-02-05), pages 1263-1280, XP055067978, ISSN: 0022-0957, DOI: 10.1093/jxb/ert026 Note: Within nine months of the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent in the European Patent Bulletin, any person may give notice to the European Patent Office of opposition to that patent, in accordance with the Implementing Regulations. Notice of opposition shall not be deemed to have been filed until the opposition fee has been paid. (Art. 99(1) European Patent Convention). EP 2 958 430 B1 Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR) EP 2 958 430 B1 Description [0001] The present invention relates to the use of Prothioconazole for inducing host defence responses in a plant by treating the plant, plant parts or seeds, wherein the treatment of the plant, plant parts or seeds induces resistance against 5 phytopathogenic pathogens or pests, and wherein the treatment of the plant, plant parts or seeds induces local resistance and wherein the treatment of the plant, plant parts or seeds induces accumulation of salicylic acid (SA) in the plant. It is assumed that all plants have the intrinsic capacity to defend themselves against pathogen attacks. Plants can be induced to deploy enhanced defenses and this can be triggered by various stimuli and chemicals. In the natural envi- ronment, disease resistance reactions of plants can be induced by e.g. microorganisms, insects, or abiotic stresses like 10 drought or heat. Numerous species of bacteria, fungi, pathogen-derived molecules, cell-wall components of fungi, pep- tides or plant extracts are commercialized as biological or natural control agents for crop diseases. These biotic factors can induce systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in plants (B. W. M. Verhagen et al., in Mol Plant Microbe Interact. (2004), vol. 17, pp. 895-908; H. Takahashi et al., in Phytopathology. (2006), vol. 96, pp. 908-916). Likewise synthetic chemical inducers of SAR are known (V. Toquin et al. in ’Modern Crop Protectioon Compounds’, W. Krämer et al. (eds), 2012, 15 Vol. 2, pp. 909-928). [0002] Induced resistance is often a systemic response with long lasting effects that confers a broad spectrum of resistance. It is regulated by a network of signaling pathways which involve endogenous phytohormones, in particular: salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) (figure 1) and ethylene. 20 25 Figure 1. Phytohormones 30 [0003] The plant hormone salicylic acid (SA) is prominently involved in plant defense responses against biotic and abiotic stresses. Exogenous application of SA confers stress tolerance (Ashraf et al., in: Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences (2010), 29(3), 162-190; Rivas-San and Plasencia in: Journal of Experimental Botany (2011) 62(10), 3321-3338). SA- induced stress tolerance, which is systemic acquired resistance (SAR), is effective against a broad range of abiotic 35 stresses as well as against fungal, bacterial, oomyce-tal, viral or even nematodal infection (Hammerschmidt in: Advances in Botanical Research (2009), 51(Plant Innate Immunity), 173-222.; Mukherjee et al. in: Archives of Phytopathology and Plant Protection (2012), 45(16), 1909-1916). Some host plant resistance inducing compounds in the fungicide market are mimics of SA, like e.g. acibenzolar-S-methyl (V. Toquin et al., . in: ’Modern Crop Protectioon Compounds’, W. Krämer et al. (eds), 2012, Vol. 2, pp. 909-928; Wu et al. in: Cell Reports (2012), 1(6), 639-647.). 40 [0004] Numerous abiotic and biotic stresses were found to increase SA levels as e.g. cold (Lissarre et al., in: Plant Signaling & Behavior (2010), 5(8), 948-952.), drought (Abreu and Munne-Bosch, in: Environmental and Experimental Botany (2008), 64(2), 105-112), the amino acid proline (Chen et al., in: Amino Acids (2011), 40(5), 1473-1484), extra- cellular nucleotides (Zhang et al. in: Plant Journal (2009), 57(2), 302-312) or infection (Schmelz et al.in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2003), 100(18), 10552-10557.). This means that 45 stress itself can induce later stress resistance (SAR) via SA signaling. Accordingly to this induction of SA accumulation is sufficient to induce SAR in plants (M. Ashraf et al. in Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences (2010), 29(3), 162-190). SA- mediated SAR is commonly distinguished from induced systemic resistance (ISR). ISR is in contrast to SAR and in reciprocal antagonism to salicylate signaling ascribed to jasmonate and ethylene signaling (Pieterse et al.in: Biology of Plant-Microbe Interactions (2006), 5, 188-194; Pieterse et al. in: Nature Chemical Biology (2009), 5(5), 308-316). How- 50 ever, a recent and more holistic interpretation of gene expression profiling data shows that SA is involved in establishment of ISR as well and SAR and ISR resemble each other closely (Mathys et al. in: Frontiers in Plant Science (2012), 3, 108. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2012.00108). [0005] SA-induced SAR spreads throughout the plant. The effect of SA and SAR on plant gene expression persists throughout long times after SA induction or application. This effect is conceptionally described as priming (Conrath 2011 55 in: Trends in Plant Science (2011), 16(10), 524-531). The nature of priming is epigenetic chromatin modification on histone proteins and on DNA (Jaskiewicz et al. in: EMBO Reports (2011), 12(1), 50-55; Dowen et al. in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2012), 109(32), E2183-E2191, SE2183/1- SE2183/252). The effect is even inheritable (Luna et al. in: Plant Physiology (2012), 158(2), 844-853). The epigenetic 2 EP 2 958 430 B1 SA effect resembles the plant defense response against biotic attack in general (Berr et al. in: Cellular Microbiology (2012) 14(6), 829-839). [0006] SA accumulation can also induce a local acquired resistance, e.g. at plant parts which are particularly affected. Local acquired SA-induced resistance can then lead to a systemic acquired resistance by spreading throughout the plant. 5 [0007] WO 2010/015337 A2 discloses the use of azoles, especially tebuconazole and prothioconazole, for increasing the resistance of plants to abiotic stress. In particular, the included biological tests show the induction of resistance against drought and cold in rapeseed, barley and maize by, among others, prothioconazole and a mixture of prothioco- nazole and ABA. [0008] D. R. WALTERS ET AL: "Controlling crop diseases using induced resistance: challenges for the future", JOUR- 10 NAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY, vol. 64, no. 5, 5 Febr uary 2013 (2013-02-05), pages 1263-1280, contains a review of agents that have been proven to induce systemic acquired resistance or induced systemic resistance in plants [0009] Surprisingly it has been found that the fungicide prothioconazole induces the accumulation of salicylic acid in plants and hence induces host defence responses in plants. Such induction of host defense responses by prothioconazole has been confirmed by gene expression analyses. 15 [0010] The present invention therefore relates to the use of Prothioconazole for inducing host defence responses in a plant by treating the plant, plant parts or seeds, wherein the treatment of the plant, plant parts or seeds induces resistance against phytopathogenic pathogens or pests, and wherein the treatment of the plant, plant parts or seeds induces local resistance and wherein the treatment of the plant, plant parts or seeds induces accumulation of salicylic acid (SA) in the plant. According to the present invention host defence responses are local defence responses of the 20 plant, preferably systemic defence responses of the plant. [0011] By treating the plant, plant parts or seeds with the fungicide Prothioconazole the induced resistance can start as a local acquired resistance in the treated plant parts or seeds and result in a systemic acquired resistance (SAR) by speading out throughout the whole plant. Since systemic acquired resistance (SAR) protects all, even newly grown parts of the plant, such systemic defence responses are preferred host defence responces according to the present invention. 25 The treatment of the plant or plant parts induces local acquired resistance. According to the present invention the treatment of the plant, plant parts or seeds with Prothioconazole induces the accumulation of salicylic acid in the plant.