Advance in Research of the Target of Action of Strobilurin Fungicides

The invention of strobilurin fungicides was inspired by a series of fungicidally active natural products—the derivatives of β-methoxyacrylate group. The outstanding character of strobilurin fungicides was broad-spectrum of activity, long duration of action, high activity at low rates of application, and outstanding environmental tolerability. The progress of research on the target and action site of the class of fungicide were reviewed with fungicide—myxothiazol as a main example. Studies on the action target of myxothiazol by biochemical assays revealed that it inhibited the mitochondrial respiration by binding at cytochrome b and iron sulfur protein, thus blocking the electron transport from cytochrome b to c1. The site of action of myxothiazol (Qo site) was achieved by studies on protein crystal structure and binding of myxothiazol was stabilized by two hydrogen bonds with residue of cytochrome b and iron sulfur protein. Almost all of the strobilurin fungicides had a common target as myxothiazol by binding to the Qo site of the bc1 complex. Maybe , there were slight variances in specific site of action due to the difference in structure between different strobilurin fungicides.