Identification of Pea Gibberellins by Studying [C]GA(12)-Aldehyde Metabolism

Experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that the labeled products recovered from plant tissue incubated with [(14)C]GA(12)-7-aldehyde ([(14)C]GA(12)ald) would serve as appropriate [(14)C]markers for the recovery of naturally-occurring gibberellins (GAs). The [(14)C]GA(12)ald (about 200 millicuries per millimole) was synthesized from pumpkin endosperm using [4,5-(14)C]mevalonic acid. It was added to the adaxial surface of isolated pea cotyledons at 22 days after flowering. Products recovered after 0.5 and 4.0 hour incubations yielded four major peaks which were separated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). These products were purified by multiple-column HPLC using on-line radioactivity detection. They were then added as [(14)C]markers to two unlabeled pea extracts. In general, preparative HPLC followed by further HPLC purification resulted in a single UV-absorbing peak co-eluting with each [(14)C]marker. These [(14)C] and UV-absorbing peaks were shown to contain GA(53), GA(44), GA(20), GA(19), and GA(17) by GC-MS. The finding of GA(53) is novel; all others have previously been found in pea. Endogenous GAs of pea were thus readily detected using [(14)C]GA(12)ald metabolites as [(14)C]markers to recover naturally occurring GAs suggesting that the method may be applicable in detecting naturally occurring GAs in other species.