Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 31, 2025
Optimizing the Use of a Liquid Handling Robot to Conduct a High Throughput Forward Chemical Genetics Screen of Arabidopsis thaliana
Published on: April 30, 2018
Systematic, small-scale screening with Arabidopsis reveals herbicides synergies that extend to lettuce
Kirill V Sukhoverkov1,2, Joshua S Mylne1,2
1School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
Background:
Combining herbicides into a mixture is a common approach used to overcome the potential for herbicide resistance in weeds. Many herbicide mixtures can be antagonistic and they are rarely synergistic. Here, 24 commercial herbicides, each representing a different mode of action were used to create a matrix of all 276 unique combinations to search for new synergies in agar using Arabidopsis thaliana.
Results:
Herbicides were used at an appropriate sublethal dose such that any synergies gave visible growth inhibition. We found five synergies including three new ones, namely mesotrione-norflurazon, mesotrione-clethodim and clomazone-paraquat. All three were reproducible in soil-grown conditions. Interestingly, the three new combinations all included a bleaching herbicide, suggesting that synergy might be a class-specific phenomenon. We also found that mesotrione-norflurazon and mesotrione-clethodim combinations were also synergistic against lettuce (Lactuca sativa), but not tef (Eragrostis tef).
Conclusion:
Our study shows that screening herbicide mixtures against A. thaliana is an efficient approach for finding rare herbicide synergies.
