CONTENTS 7097 3.2. Discovery of Advanced Candidates SYP-1545, SYP-4288, and SYP-4380 7098 4. Conclusion 7098 Author Information 7099 Corresponding Author 7099 Present Address 7099 Notes 7099 Biographies 7099 Acknowledgments 7100 References 7100

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The pyrimidinamine diflumetorim is an ideal template for the discovery of agrochemical lead compounds due to its unique mode of action, novel chemical structure, and lack of reported resistance. To develop a new pyrimidinamine fungicide effective against cucumber downy mildew (CDM), a series of new pyrimidinamine derivatives containing an aryloxy pyridine moiety were designed and synthesized by employing the recently reported intermediate derivatization method (IDM). The structures of all compounds were identified by H NMR, elemental analyses, HRMS, and X-ray diffraction. Bioassays demonstrated that some of the title compounds exhibited excellent fungicidal activities against CDM. Compound 9 gave the best activity (EC = 0.19 mg/L), which is significantly better than the commercial fungicides diflumetorim, flumorph, and cyazofamid. The relationship between structure and fungicidal activity of the synthesized pyrimidinamines was explored. The study showed that compound 9 is a promising fungicide candidate for further development.

Downy mildew is one of the most highly destructive of the diseases that cause damage to fruits and vegetables. Because of the continual development of resistance, it is important to discover new fungicides with different modes of action from existing fungicides for the control of downy mildew. This study is a continuation of our previous work on the novel pyrimidinamine lead compound, 9, and includes field trials for the identification of the optimal candidate. A new compound, 1c, was obtained, which gave a lower EC value (0.10 mg/L) against downy mildew than lead compound 9 (0.19 mg/L) and the commercial fungicides diflumetorim, dimethomorph, and cyazofamid (1.01-23.06 mg/L). Compound 1c displayed similar broad-spectrum fungicidal activity to compound 9 but better field efficacy than compound 9, cyazofamid, and flumorph. The present work indicates that pyrimidinamine compound 1c is a candidate for further development as a commercial fungicide for the control of downy mildew.

The novel fungicidal agents, (E)-5- [1-(2-oxo-1-oxaspiro[4,5]dec/non-3-en-3-yl)ethylidene]-2-aminoimidazolin-4-one derivatives, were designed and synthesized in moderate to excellent yields in four steps using α-hydroxyketone and diketene as raw materials and characterized by HR-ESI-MS, 1 H NMR and X-ray diffraction. The preliminary bioassay showed that some of these compounds, such as 5e, 6a, 6e, and 7h exhibit 87.8%, 91.3%, 89.9% and 87.8% inhibition rates against Sclerotinia scleotiorum, 3b, 3c, 4c and 7h exhibit 96.4%, 92.5%, 90.3% and 76.9% inhibition rates against Phytophthora capsici at the concentration of 50 µg/mL, respectively. These compounds exhibited significant fungicidal activities against S. scleotiorum and P. capsici with EC 50 values of 2.56 -11.60 µg/mL, and compounds 6e and 7h exhibited weak inhibition against the spore germination of S. scleotiorum, while the spore germination of P. capsici was strongly inhibited by compound 7h solution. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation indicated that compound 7h had a significant impact on the structure and function of the hyphal cell wall of P. capsici mycelium. Keywords(E)-5-[1-(2-oxo-1-oxaspiro[4.5]dec/non-3-en-3-yl)ethylidene]-2-aminoimidazolin-4-one, synthesis, fungicidal activities www.cjc.wiley-vch.de (E)-5-[1-(2-Oxo-1-oxaspiro[4,5]dec/non-3-en-3-yl)ethylidene]-2-aminoimidazolin-4-one Chin. 1135 15H); HR-ESI-MS calcd for C 24 H 30 N 3 O 4 [M＋H] ＋ (E)-5-[1 5]dec/non-3-en-3-yl)ethylidene]-2-aminoimidazolin-4-one Chin.

The present work demonstrates that coumarin derivatives containing methoxyacrylate moieties can be used as possible lead compounds for developing novel fungicides.

Intensive competition of intellectual property, easy development of agrochemical resistance, and stricter regulations of environmental concerns make the successful rate for agrochemical discovery extremely lower using traditional agrochemical discovery methods. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find a novel approach to guide agrochemical discovery with high efficiency to quickly keep pace with the changing market. On the basis of these situations, here we summarize the intermediate derivatization method (IDM) between conventional methods in agrochemicals and novel ones in pharmaceuticals. This method is relatively efficient with short time in discovery phase, reduced cost, especially good innovated structure, and better performance. In this paper, we summarize and illustrate "what is the IDM" and "why to use" and "how to use" it to accelerate the discovery of new biologically active molecules, focusing on agrochemicals. Furthermore, we display several research projects in our novel agrochemical discovery programs with improved success rate under guidance of this strategy in recent years.

Chlorothalonil with both low cost and low toxicity is a popularly used fungicide in the agrochemical field. The presence of nucleophilic groups on this compound allows further chemical modifications to obtain novel chlorothalonil derivatives. Fluazinam, another commercially available agent with a broad fungicidal spectrum, has a scaffold of diaryl amine structure. To mimic this backbone structure, a variety of (un)substituted phenyl amines was used as nucleophilic agents to react with chlorothalonil to obtain compounds with a diphenyl amine structure. Via an elegant design, two leads, 2,4,5-trichloro-6-(2,4-dichlorophenylamino)isophthalonitrile (7) and 2,4,5-trichloro-6-(2,4,6-trichlorophenylamino)isophthalonitrile (11), with potential fungicidal activity were discovered after a preliminary bioassay screen. These two leads were further modified to obtain final products by replacing the chlorine groups in the phenyl ring in phenyl amine with other functional groups. These functional groups with various electronic properties and spatial characteristics were considered to explore the relationship between structure and fungicidal activity. The results indicate that the electron-withdrawing group NO2 on the 4 position on the right phenyl ring plays a unique role on enhancing the fungicidal activity. The compounds were identified by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and elemental analysis. Bioassays demonstrated that some of the title compounds exhibited excellent fungicidal activities against cucumber downy mildew at 25 mg/L. Compound 20 has been shown as the optimal structure with 85% control against cucumber downy mildew at 6.25 mg/L concentration. The relationship between structure and fungicidal activity is reported. The present work demonstrates that chlorothalonil derivatives can be used as possible lead compounds for developing novel fungicides.