The company "August" in Moscow launched a new artificial climate laboratory to conduct research on the effectiveness of chemical plant protection products (CPP) and active components for them. Laboratory with an area of 152 sq. meters is designed for biotesting of pesticides on the whole plant. Its capabilities are more than 3 times higher than the productivity of the site where the specialists of "August" performed similar studies earlier. Until recently, artificial climate chambers, or phytotrons, were not produced in Russia and had to be imported from Europe. However, the specialists of "August", in cooperation with domestic manufacturers of air conditioners-designers, managed to create their own phytotrons, having carried out an effective import substitution of a key part of laboratory equipment.
In 2022, August specialists renovated and equipped the premises of a new artificial climate laboratory. Tests of the biological effectiveness of preparations manufactured by JSC Firm "August" have already begun here. In the laboratory, the best product samples are identified for their further registration and introduction into production, primary screening of new active substances is carried out, on which the synthetic chemists of "August" are working, they study the effect of CPPP on the biology of cultivated and weed plants. Also, the laboratory will become part of the system of technological support for the use of Augusta preparations - if necessary, research will be carried out here at various requests from farmers.
“There are 3 new artificial climate chambers in our laboratory,” says Mikhail Kolupaev, head of the laboratory, head of the herbicide registration group at JSC Firma August. – This is high-tech equipment with a user-friendly interface, created in Russia. Using the tablet, you can set the required temperature and humidity, set up automatic day / night modes, monitor and control all important parameters. If necessary, laboratory equipment will allow to simulate a desert or very humid climate, but the key task is usually to create normal, but at the same time as uniform conditions as possible in order to grow as uniform test plants as possible and to obtain representative results of comparative experiments with them. It is extremely difficult to put such an experiment in the field, and most importantly, to correctly statistically process the data obtained there.
The area of each artificial climate chamber is 9 square meters. meters, any of them can accommodate 300-350 vessels with plant samples at the same time. When performing studies of the effectiveness of preparations (herbicides) against weeds, an array of plants is treated with a product in different dosages (at least 5 dosages and at least 5 vessels with samples for each). On days 12–14, the biomass is cut off, weighed, and using the “dose / effect” curve, the ED 50 indicator is determined - the drug consumption rate, which reduces the biomass of the test object by 50% compared to untreated plants. Comparison of these indicators obtained for the compounds studied in a particular experiment, and allows you to choose the most effective of them. To date, the need for such tests has increased significantly, since in the conditions of broken logistics and financial chains of world trade, Russian companies have to purchase many components of CPPP from other countries and from other manufacturers, and therefore the characteristics and biological effectiveness of the ingredients supplied for the first time require additional verification. . In addition to studying ready-made formulations of pesticides, the artificial climate laboratory will also conduct primary screening of newly synthesized active substances, that is, studies on how and on which crops the new molecule affects. For such experiments with physiologically active compounds, a protocol has been developed that includes their testing on 6 plant species of different families.
No less important for food security than testing a specific crop protection product are studies of the development of plant resistance to certain groups of drugs. According to the experts of "August", scientists today study this phenomenon in detail, but until recently in Russia this issue was not closely dealt with. In the International Database of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds, 515 proven cases are currently recorded, and only one of them refers to the territory of the Russian Federation, moreover, it was detected more than 20 years ago. At the same time, the employees of "August" have already managed to contribute to filling in the world map of resistance: in one of the farms of the Republic of Kazakhstan, they were able to detect the resistance of the cocklebur weed to acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors used to protect soybean crops, and completed the corresponding study . Another precedent may appear - already in Russia, on the territory of the Saratov region, where the specialists of "August" found biotypes of amaranth resistant to ALS-inhibitors. In laboratory conditions, comparative studies on samples of weed seeds taken from different fields, differing in the intensity of use of herbicides with the same mechanism of action, help to prove the development of resistance and determine its coefficient. Identification of resistance to certain groups of drugs should help farmers change and improve crop protection schemes in a timely manner.
In addition, the new laboratory will be engaged in the study of quarantine plants, which until recently were not in Russia, as well as drugs to combat them. Now in "August" they are preparing to study which of the products available to the company could cope with David's Euphorbia, the seeds of which have already been sent to the company by domestic farmers.
The company "August" is preparing for the construction of a modern research center (SRC) in the city of Chernogolovka: it is assumed that in the new institute for the development of plant protection products, an entire floor will be allocated for artificial climate laboratories. The launch of the new laboratory "Augusta" is, in fact, a preliminary stage for equipping the SIC.
“Here we have a wonderful opportunity to work out various methods, evaluate the functioning of the equipment, take into account the smallest details in order to subsequently use all the best and most effective in the new scientific center,” says Mikhail Kolupaev.