New data on CKX inhibitors presented at NewAg Conference
On Thursday 11th April, Jaroslav Nisler presented promising new data on IntraCrop’s CKX inhibitors for the first time at the NewAg International Annual Conference in Berlin. The conference brings together researchers, scientists, agronomists, academics, and other stakeholders from across the plant nutrition, fertiliser and biostimulant industries, providing opportunities for knowledge exchange and networking.
Jaroslav, Head of the Isotope Laboratory at the Institute of Experimental Botany (CZ), has worked closely with IntraCrop for many years and was instrumental in the development of MTU®. Last year, he presented on this revolutionary technology at the Biostimulants World Congress, where it received interest from attendees who had come to the congress from all over the world. This week, his presentation was titled, “Exploring the potential of novel CKX inhibitors in agriculture”.
Jaroslav tells us, “Over the past three years, we have developed over 100 compounds which block the degradation of cytokinins in plants by inhibiting CKX. These compounds are perfect candidates for use in agriculture. Winter wheat and oil seed rape treated by key CKX inhibitors in low concentrations exhibited surprisingly fast growth and development of shoots and roots to nearly double the weight. We recorded the same results when these two species were grown with half a dose of nitrogen fertilizer, so this clearly points to higher nutrient use efficiency by treated plants. CKX inhibitors caused greater root branching and overall root growth, which contradicts current knowledge about the effect of cytokinins on root development. My presentation covered this, as well as how we the developed these key compounds and their effect on leguminous species and the yield of field-grown spring barley, winter wheat and oilseed rape.”
Mark Palmer and Emily Way attended the conference with Jaroslav. Mark says, “It was great to be in the room as we gave those at the conference a teaser of the new technology we have been working on. We were particularly pleased to share early data on ‘Compound 82’, which has already shown to significantly increase nutrient use efficiency in Arabidopsis. As a science-led organisation, all of our products are carefully and thoroughly tested for proof of concept and, at this moment in time, the CKX inhibitors are undergoing rigorous testing on a variety of crops and in a number of countries and climates. It is imperative that when we launch new technologies they absolutely meet label claims and that we can advise growers on best timings and formulations. We will bring more information in due course – watch this space.”
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11th April 2024
