Plant protecting and regulating compositions – Plant growth regulating compositions – Plural active ingredients
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-30
2003-11-04
Clardy, S. Mark (Department: 1616)
Plant protecting and regulating compositions
Plant growth regulating compositions
Plural active ingredients
C504S206000, C504S271000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06642176
ABSTRACT:
This application has been filed under 35 USC 371 as the national stage of international application PCT/FR99/02648, filed Oct. 29, 1999.
The present invention relates to a novel herbicidal composition comprising the combination of two herbicides, a herbicide from the class of the isoxazoles and a herbicide from the glyphosate class, with a biological activator for the herbicide from the glyphosate class. The novel composition of the invention is particularly suitable for application to genetically modified plants in order to render them tolerant to herbicides from the glyphosate class and, where appropriate, in order to render them tolerant also to herbicides from the class of the isoxazoles.
The glyphosate-class herbicides are total systemic herbicides which act within plants by inhibiting an enzyme which is vital to the plants, forming part of the biosynthetic pathway of aromatic amino acids: 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). There are no known plants with natural tolerance to glyphosate-class herbicides, thereby restricting their use to applications in fields before sowing or to uncultivated areas, such as, for example, railways or roadsides.
The development of the technologies of genetic engineering, and more particularly the technologies of transforming plants by genetic engineering, has made it possible since the 1980s to develop technologies intended for rendering plants, and more particularly crop plants, tolerant to glyphosate-class herbicides. The development of these new technologies made it possible, from 1995 onwards, to market crop plant seeds which are tolerant to glyphosate-class herbicides. The products in question include, in particular, cotton and soya which are sold under the name Roundup Ready (registered trade mark of Monsanto), modified so as to render them tolerant to glyphosate-class herbicides by the introduction of a gene coding for a modified EPSPS. There are other plants which are on the point of being brought onto the market with an identical or different tolerant technology, especially colza and maize, while still other plants are undergoing development.
In the present patent application, the term plants genetically modified in order to render them tolerant to glyphosate-class herbicides will be understood as referring to any plant obtained from a transformed plant whose genome has been modified by genetic engineering in order to render it insensitive to glyphosate-class herbicides. In particular, such plants will have been modified by the introduction of at least one chimeric gene comprising a sequence coding for a glyphosate tolerance enzyme under the control of 5′ and 3′ heterologous regulatory elements which are functional in plant cells and plants. The glyphosate tolerance enzymes and the chimeric genes useful for their expression in plants in order to render them tolerant to glyphosate-class herbicides are described in particular in the following patents and patent applications: U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,835, U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,908, U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,783, U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,642, U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,677, U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,910, U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,471, U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,435, U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,061, U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,448 and WO 97/04103.
The development of these plants genetically modified to render them tolerant opens up the way to new fields of application of glyphosate-class herbicides together with new technical problems, associated in particular with the application of the herbicide to crop plants without harming them but while maintaining a high level of efficacy on weeds.
In the present patent application, the term plant will be understood to refer to any plant or any photosynthesis-capable differentiated multicellular organism, especially monocotyledons or dicotyledons, more particularly crop plants intended or otherwise for human or animal food, such as maize, wheat, colza, soya, rice, sugar cane, beet, tobacco, cotton, clover, etc., preferably maize or soya, more preferably soya.
Although glyphosate-class herbicides are known to have a broad spectrum of action, they nevertheless have a number of disadvantages, associated with their lack of persistence in the field, and hence an action which is limited over time, and a limited speed of action. To counter these disadvantages, it is known to combine glyphosate-class herbicides, on the one hand, with a herbicide which is more persistent and which has spectrum of action which is complementary to that of the glyphosate-class herbicides and, on the other hand, with a biological activator which will enhance the biological activity of the glyphosate-class herbicides, in particular by promoting the penetration of the herbicide into the leaves, thereby increasing its speed of action. The use of these biological activators, and their combination with other herbicides, has been widely described in the literature (in particular E. Grossbaerd & D. Atkinson,
The Herbicide Glyphosate
, Butterworth & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. 1985).
The isoxazoles are a novel class of herbicides which act on an enzyme involved in the biosynthetic pathway of homogentisate, namely hydroxyphenyl pyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD), whose inhibition leads to whitening of plants sensitive to these herbicides. The isoxazole-class herbicides are described in particular in the following patents and patent applications: EP 418 175, EP 487 357, EP 527 036, EP 560 482, WO 94/14782, U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,064, U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,063, U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,063, U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,064 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,573, whose content is incorporated here by reference. These herbicides have a persistent activity and, for certain crops, an action which is complementary to that of glyphosate.
Certain herbicides from this class, such as isoxaflutole, are selective with regard to certain major crop plants and may be employed as they are on plants such as maize. Also known is the means of conferring on the plants improved tolerance to isoxazole-class herbicides by genetic engineering, by introducing into the genome of said plants a gene coding for an HPPD, under the control of 5′ and 3′ regulatory elements which are functional in plant cells and plants. These genes, which confer improved tolerance to herbicides which are inhibitors of HPPD, and more particularly to isoxazole-class herbicides, are described in particular in the following patent applications: WO 96/38567, FR 97 14569, filed Nov. 17, 1997, and FR 96 16726, filed Dec. 24, 1997. There are even plants known to exhibit a dual tolerance, obtained by genetic engineering, on the one hand to glyphosate-class herbicides and on the other hand to HPPD-inhibitor herbicides, especially those from the class of isoxazoles, which are described in the patent application WO 98/02562.
According to the invention, the term plant tolerant to isoxazole-class herbicides means any plant tolerant to said herbicides, whether naturally tolerant or rendered tolerant following transformation by genetic engineering.
With plants which exhibit properties both of tolerance to glyphosate-class herbicides, obtained from a transformation by genetic engineering, and of tolerance to isoxazole-class herbicides, either natural or obtained from a transformation by genetic engineering, it is possible to apply the herbicides from these two classes simultaneously, not only pre-emergence but also post-emergence. Such treatments are described in particular in the patent application U.S. Pat. No. 08/969,032, filed Nov. 12, 1997, whose content is incorporated here by reference.
With this aim, attempts were made to develop herbicidal compositions which are easy to use and comprise high concentrations of herbicides from both classes for simultaneous application, and in particular solid compositions which are dilutable or dispersible in water. However, it was found that these formulations had major problems of chemical stability of their constituents, in particular the isoxazole-class herbicides, owing to the presence of particular salts of the glyphosate-class herbicides, in particular the isopro
Febvre Jean-Claude
Lavault Sylvie
Perez Gilbert Antoine
Pillet Louis
Bayer CropScience S.A.
Clardy S. Mark
Connolly Bove Lodge and Hutz LLP
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