Study of thiazoline derivatives for the design of optimal fungicidal compounds using multiple linear regression (MLR)

Rice blast is the most serious disease of rice due to its harmfulness and its world wide distribution. Magnaporthe grisea is the cause of rice blast disease and destroys rice enough to feed several tens of millions of people each year. Fungicides are commonly used to control rice blast. But M. grisea acquires resistance to chemical treatments by genetic mutations. 2-Phenylimino-1,3-thiazolines were proposed as a novel class of fungicides against M. grisea in the previous study. To develop compounds with a higher biological activity, a new series of 2-phenylimino-1,3-thiazolines was synthesized and its fungicidal activity was determined against M. grisea. The QSAR analysis was carried out on a series of 2-phenylimino-1,3-thiazolines. The QSAR results showed the dependence of fungicidal activity on the structural and physicochemical features of 2-phenylimino- 1,3-thiazolines. Our results could be used as guidelines for the study of the mode of action and further design of optimal fungicides.