Rapid and reproducible determination of active gibberellins in citrus tissues by UPLC/ESI-MS/MS

Phytohormone determination is crucial to explain the physiological mechanisms during growth and development. Therefore, rapid and precise methods are needed to achieve reproducible determination of phytohormones. Among many others, gibberellins (GAs) constitute a family of complex analytes as most of them share similar structure and chemical properties although only a few hold biological activity (namely GA1; GA3; GA4 and GA7). A method has been developed to extract GAs from plant tissues by mechanical disruption using ultrapure water as solvent and, in this way, ion suppression was reduced whereas sensitivity increased. Using this methodology, the four active GAs were separated and quantified by UPLC coupled to MS/MS using the isotope-labeled internal standards [2H2]-GA1 and [2H2]-GA4. To sum up, the new method provides a fast and reproducible protocol to determine bioactive GAs at low concentrations, using minimal amounts of sample and reducing the use of organic solvents.