Capillary electrophoresis of cytokinins and cytokinin ribosides

Quo vadis plant hormone analysis?

Plant hormones act as chemical messengers in the regulation of myriads of physiological processes that occur in plants. To date, nine groups of plant hormones have been identified and more will probably be discovered. Furthermore, members of each group may participate in the regulation of physiological responses in planta both alone and in concert with members of either the same group or other groups. The ideal way to study biochemical processes involving these signalling molecules is 'hormone profiling', i.e. quantification of not only the hormones themselves, but also their biosynthetic precursors and metabolites in plant tissues. However, this is highly challenging since trace amounts of all of these substances are present in highly complex plant matrices. Here, we review advances, current trends and future perspectives in the analysis of all currently known plant hormones and the associated problems of extracting them from plant tissues and separating them from the numerous potentially interfering compounds.

Analytical methods for tracing plant hormones

Plant hormones play important roles in regulating numerous aspects of plant growth, development, and response to stress. In the past decade, more analytical methods for the accurate identification and quantitative determination of trace plant hormones have been developed to better our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of plant hormones. As sample preparation is often the bottleneck in analysis of plant hormones in biological samples, this review firstly discusses sample preparation techniques after a brief introduction to the classes, roles, and methods used in the analysis of plant hormones. The analytical methods, especially chromatographic techniques and immuno-based methods, are reviewed in detail, and their corresponding advantages, limitations, applications, and prospects are also discussed. This review mainly covers reports published from 2000 to the present on methods for the analysis of plant hormones.

Recent food safety and food quality applications of CE-MS

The first on-line coupling of CE with MS detection more than 20 years ago provided a very powerful technique with a wide variety of applications, among which food analysis is of special interest, especially that dealing with food safety and food quality applications, the major topics of public interest nowadays. With this review article, we would like to show the most recent applications of CE-MS in both fields by recompiling and commenting articles published between January 2004 and October 2008. Although both applications are difficult to separate from each other, we have included in this work two main sections dealing with each specific field. Future trends will also be discussed.

CE for cytokinin analyses: a review

Analyses of cytokinins are very important in both plant physiological and biomedical research as they are implicated in many biological processes. Reliable, sensitive, selective and inexpensive methods that are flexible and designed for automation are required for these analyses. This review addresses the advances made in the separation and determination of cytokinins by CE as well as the other applications of CE (i.e., determination of dissociation constants and complexation constants of cytokinins). The various CE modes used to separate the compounds and the quantification strategies are examined. Special attention is also focused on those aspects that improve on the sensitivity and/or selectivity, such as sample extraction and preconcentration, on-line preconcentration techniques (stacking), and/or specific detectors (e.g., MS). With the coupling to the preconcentration techniques and certain detection systems, numerous CE methods can potentially be adapted for the analysis of cytokinins in complex biological samples. Therefore, we would anticipate wider applications of CE methods in the near future for cytokinin analyses, which should facilitate a decrease in analysis cost and should help to improve analysis efficiency.

Determination of cytokinins in coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) water using capillary zone electrophoresis-tandem mass spectrometry

The applicability of CZE in combination with MS and MS/MS methods for the simultaneous separation and determination of 12 cytokinins was investigated for the first time. Cytokinins were first completely separated by CZE within less than 20 min using a volatile buffer and then detected directly by MS or MS/MS. Satisfactory separation of the 12 cytokinin standards was achieved using a 25 mM ammonium formate/formic acid buffer (pH 3.4) and 3% ACN v/v with a separation voltage of 25 kV. On the basis of the resolution of the neighboring peaks, the various parameters for CZE-MS optimization, such as buffer pH value, concentration of buffer and organic modifier, applied voltage and sheath liquid, were evaluated systematically. MS/MS with multiple reaction monitoring detection was carried out to obtain sufficient selectivity and sensitivity. The combination of on-line sample stacking and CZE-MS/MS achieved a detection limit in the range of 0.05-0.18 microM for the 12 cytokinins at an S/N of 3. The optimized CZE-MS/MS method was simple, rapid, low cost, robust and highly selective. Furthermore, the developed method was successfully applied to screen for endogenous cytokinins in purified coconut water extract sample. Nine cytokinins were detected and quantified in coconut water after SPE.

Batch immunoextraction method for efficient purification of aromatic cytokinins

A range of benzylaminopurines naturally occur in plants and exhibit high biological activity. Others have been synthesized, such as 6-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylamino)purine riboside (2OH3MeOBAPR), which has shown interesting anti-cancer activity under in vitro conditions. In order to study the biological activity of this interesting compound in more detail, a rapid and highly efficient method for its purification from complex samples (e.g. blood and plant extracts) is needed. Therefore, we prepared monoclonal antibodies against 2OH3MeOBAPR. The antibody had undetectable cross-reactivity with all natural isoprenoid cytokinins, but relatively high cross-reactivity with aromatic cytokinins as well as some synthetic di- and tri-substituted 6-benzylaminopurines and the corresponding ribosides. The antibody also showed strong responses and specificity in enzyme-linked immunoassays (ELISAs). In addition, it was used to prepare, for the first time, an immunoaffinity sorbent with high specificity and capacity for aromatic cytokinins. A batch immunoextraction method was then developed and optimized for the purification of 2OH3MeOBAPR from murine blood samples. The high efficacy and simplicity of this method (in off-line combination with HPLC-MS) for the isolation of target analytes from biological material is demonstrated in this study.

Identification of kinetin and kinetin riboside in coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) water using a combined approach of liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis

Kinetin (free base and riboside), which was assumed by many scientists to be a synthetic cytokinin plant growth hormone, has been detected for the first time in the endosperm liquid of fresh young coconut fruits ("coconut water"). To facilitate the study, we developed a sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the identification and quantification of kinetin and kinetin riboside in purified coconut water extract sample. Following a solid-phase extraction of cytokinins in coconut water using C18 columns, the samples were further purified by Oasis MCX columns and analyzed by LC-MS/MS for kinetin and kinetin riboside. Detection by mass spectrometry was carried out using selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode, by identifying the putative kinetin and kinetin riboside based on their characteristic fragments. Based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, the limits of detection in SRM mode were 0.02 microM and 0.005 microM for kinetin and kinetin riboside, respectively. Furthermore, optimal conditions for a baseline chromatographic separation of 18 cytokinin standards by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were developed. The HPLC method had been employed for the confirmation and further fractionation of kinetin in coconut water extracts. The confirmation and fractionation of kinetin riboside was carried out using a further modified HPLC program due to the presence of other interfering material(s) in the sample matrix. Finally, fractions of putative kinetin and kinetin riboside collected from HPLC eluate of coconut water sample were further authenticated by independent capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) experiment.

Analysis of positional isomers of hydroxylated aromatic cytokinins by micellar electrokinetic chromatography

A micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method was developed for the separation of six positional isomers of hydroxylated aromatic cytokinins (topolin and topolin riboside), including ortho-topolin, meta-topolin, para-topolin, ortho-topolin riboside, meta-topolin riboside, and para-topolin riboside. Optimum resolution and analysis time (ca. 20 min) for the six aromatic cytokinin standards were achieved with a running buffer at pH 8.0 consisting of 20 mM boric acid, 50 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and 20% v/v methanol. The method has good reproducibility and has been successfully applied to detect the presence of a putative ortho-topolin in coconut water extract sample purified using C(18) and mixed-mode solid-phase extraction (SPE) columns. Other advantages of this MEKC method are short analysis time, low solvent consumption, and separation of positional isomers which could be achieved by a simple aqueous buffer system without the use of expensive chromatographic columns. In addition, a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with baseline separation of the six topolin and topolin riboside standards was developed for the confirmation of the endogenous ortho-topolin in coconut water sample. Finally, the presence of ortho-topolin was further confirmed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) based on its characteristic fragmentation pattern.

Coupling continuous separation techniques to capillary electrophoresis

One of the weak points of capillary electrophoresis is the need to implement rigorously sample pretreatment because its great impact on the quality of the qualitative and quantitative results provided. One of the approaches to solve this problem is through the symbiosis of automatic continuous flow systems (CFSs) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). In this review a systematic approach to CFS-CE coupling is presented and discussed. The design of the corresponding interface depends on three factors, namely: (a) the characteristics of the CFS involved which can be non-chromatographic and chromatographic; (b) the type of CE equipment: laboratory-made or commercially available; and (c) the type of connection which can be in-line (on-capillary), on-line or mixed off/on-line. These are the basic criteria to qualify the hyphenation of CFS (solid-phase extraction, dialysis, gas diffusion, evaporation, direct leaching) with CE described so far and applied to determine a variety of analytes in many different types of samples. A critical discussion allows one to demonstrate that this symbiosis is an important topic in research and development, besides separation and detection, to consolidate CE as a routine analytical tool.

Study of cytokinin metabolism using HPLC with radioisotope detection

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with an on-line flow-through radioactivity detector was used to monitor the metabolism of cytokinins ([3H]6-benzylaminopurine and [3H]6-benzylaminopurine riboside) after their incorporation into wheat seedlings. The production and conversion of individual metabolites was assayed within a short time interval (0.5-3 h). Extraction recoveries from plant tissue proved to be 85%. The uptake of both cytokinins was very rapid and differences in their metabolism were already perceptible after 30 min. The individual metabolites were identified as adenine (Ade), adenosine (Ado), benzyladenine-9-glucoside (BA-9G), 6-benzyladenine (BA) and benzyladenosine (BAR). The method is very fast, sensitive and very useful for metabolic studies. The detection limit was 40 pg (220 Bq) for BA at the level of 2 ng ml-1.