Abstract: A method of improving the yield and vigor of agronomic plants, in particular leguminous plants such as soybeans, involves treating such plants and/or the propagation material of plants with a composition that includes an active agent, such as a fungicide, that has no significant activity against fungal plant pathogens of the treated plant. When the plant is not wheat, a preferred agent of this type is 4,5-dimethyl-N-(2-propenyl)-2-(trimethylsilyl)-3-thiophenecarboxamide (silthiofam). Plants and plant propagation material, such as seeds, that have been treated by the novel method are also described.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to the means by which to alter the binding affinity and/or specificity of a compound with a sequence of DNA in the minor groove of a double-strand thereof. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a synthetic and/or non-naturally occurring compound (e.g., an analog of a polyamide oligomer or polymer) which contains at least one hydrogen bond donor moiety and at least one hydrogen bond acceptor moiety, wherein the latter moiety or “building block” has a fused, bicyclic structure which is heteroaromatic, said structure having a heteroatom therein which acts as a hydrogen bond acceptor to bind guanine in the minor groove of the dsDNA sequence, and which is incapable of forming a tautomer. In one particular embodiment of the synthetic and/or non-naturally occurring compound, the fused, bicyclic structure occupies an initial or first terminal position within the compound.

Abstract: This invention relates to 4,5-dimethyl-N-2-propenyl-2-(trimethylsilyl)-3-thiophenecarboxamide, a method for the control of Take-All disease (Gaeumannomyces species) in plants by the use of this compound, and to fungicidal compostions for carrying out the method.