Agrochemical compositions comprising antibodies binding to sphingolipids
The present invention relates to agrochemical and biological control compositions for combating pests, more specifically plant pests, comprising at least one polypeptide, which specifically binds to a pest. The invention further provides methods for protecting or treating a plant or a part of a plant from an infection or other biological interaction with a plant pathogen, at least comprising the step of applying directly or indirectly to a plant or to a part of a plant, an agrochemical composition, under conditions effective to protect or treat a plant or a part of a plant against a infection or biological interaction with a plant pathogen. Further provided are methods for producing such agrochemical compositions and formulations, to polypeptides with a specific pesticidal activity comprised within an agrochemical formulation, to nucleic acids encoding such polypeptide and to plants comprising chimeric genes comprising such nucleic acids.
1. An antifungal composition comprising at least one polypeptide that specifically binds to a glucosylceramide of a fungal pest, wherein the at least one polypeptide is a heavy chain variable domain of a heavy chain antibody (V HH ) or a functional fragment thereof, or wherein the at least one polypeptide is an alphabody or a functional fragment thereof.
2. The composition of claim 1 , which further comprises an agrochemically or pharmaceutically suitable carrier and/or one or more suitable adjuvants.
3. The composition of claim 1 , wherein said pest is a pathogenic fungus.
4. An anti-pest composition comprising the composition of claim 1 .
5. A fungicidal and/or fungistatic agent comprising:
the composition of claim 1 .
6. The composition of claim 3 , wherein the pathogenic fungus is a plant pathogenic fungus selected from the group consisting of Alternaria, Ascochyta, Botrytis, Cercospora, Colletotrichum, Diplodia, Erysiphe, Fusarium, Leptosphaeria, Gaeumanomyces, Helminthosporium, Macrophomina, Nectria, Penicillium, Peronospora, Phoma, Phymatotrichum, Phytophthora, Plasmopara, Podosphaera, Puccinia, Pyrenophora, Pyricularia, Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Scerotium, Sclerotinia, Septoria, Thielaviopsis, Uncinula, Venturia, Verticillium, Magnaporthe, Blumeria, Mycosphaerella, Ustilago, Melampsora, Phakospora, Monilinia, Mucor, Rhizopus , and Aspergillus ; or
a human or animal pathogenic fungus selected from the group consisting of selected from the group consisting of Candida species, Candida albicans, Cryptococcus species, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus species, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavus, Pneumocystis species, Pneumocystis carinii, Coccidioides species, Coccidioides iminitis, Trichophyton species, Trichophyton verrucosum, Blastomyces species, Blastomyces dermatidis, Histoplasma species, Histoplasma capsulatum, Paracoccidioides species, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis; Pythium species, and Pythium insidiosumi.
7. The composition of claim 2 , wherein the polypeptide is from 0.0001% to 50% by weight of the composition.