Endosidin20 is a broad-spectrum cellulose synthesis inhibitor with an herbicidal function

Cellulose is an important component of plant cell wall that controls anisotropic cell growth. Disruption of cellulose biosynthesis often leads to inhibited cell growth. Endosidin20 (ES20) was recently identified as a cellulose biosynthesis inhibitor (CBI) that targets the catalytic domain of Arabidopsis cellulose synthase 6 (CESA6) to inhibit plant growth. Here, we characterized the effects of ES20 on the growth of some other plant species and found that ES20 is a broad-spectrum plant growth inhibitor. We compared the inhibitory effects of ES20 and other CBIs on the growth of cesa6 plants that have reduced sensitivity to ES20. We found that most of the cesa6 with reduced sensitivity to ES20 show normal inhibited growth by other CBIs. ES20 also shows synergistic inhibitory effect on plant growth when applied together with other CBIs. We show ES20 has a different mode of action than tested CBIs isoxaben, indaziflam and C17. ES20 not only inhibits Arabidopsis growth under tissue culture condition, it inhibits plant growth under soil condition after direct spraying. We demonstrate that plants carrying two missense mutations can tolerate dual inhibition by ES20 and isoxaben. One sentence summaryCellulose biosynthesis inhibitor Endosidin20 has synergistic effect with other cellulose synthesis inhibitors and has the potential to be used as a spray herbicide.