Design, synthesis and biological activities of novel urea derivatives with superior plant growth-inhibiting activity

In order to discover novel plant growth regulators and herbicides with new modes of action for crops production management and improvement, a series of new urea derivatives were designed and synthesized. The bioassay results demonstrated that target compounds exhibited remarkable inhibitory activities in the growth of hypocotyls and taproots and good promoting activity in the generation of lateral roots on Arabidopsis and rice, and compound Y9k showed considerable inhibition effects on germination of Bidens and growth of Abutilon in the herbicidal assay. These results suggested that compound Y9k may be a potential lead structure as a novel plant growth regulator for plant type regulation and weed control.