Chemical and Biotechnological Evolution of Molecules with Auxin-Type Activity: A Review

Abstract

According to demographic assessments, it is necessary to increase agricultural productivity by 70% in order to feed an additional 9.000 million people in the year 2050, even when biotic-abiotic factors make this goal difficult. With the aim of promoting the development of new herbicides, this compilation systematic review analyzed the chemical and biotechnological evolution of molecules with auxin-like activity. For this, scientific information was sought on physical-chemical descriptors of auxins, agrochemical classification and uses according to the site of action, in order to describe the changes that have occurred since its discovery to the present day. The critical chemical analysis revealed that industrial synthesis and innovation in the last 70 years have been scarce, and additionally, the commercialized compounds do not follow a defined pharmacophoric pattern due to the lack of structural homology with IAA. It is necessary to understand the ligand-receptor biochemistry and the associated transport mechanisms from a genomic approach, in order to use computational tools to direct the rational synthesis of molecules that evade resistance mechanisms. The biotechnological analysis showed that the industrialization of agriculture and the appearance of transgenic plants forced the incorporation of auxin-type herbicides to eliminate weeds and improve crop yields, although their misuse caused resistance and environmental contamination, which is leading to disuse and possessing the PGPR and PGPB as functional alternatives at the laboratory and small scale level. Finally, it is concluded that the problem of resistance to herbicides cannot be corrected until the trinomial farmer-government-academy is articulated.