Detection of Thermospermine and Spermine by HPLC in Plants
Taku Takahashi1, Ayaka Takano2, Jun-Ichi Kakehi2
1Division of Earth, Life, and Molecular Sciences, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Tsushimanaka 3-1-1, kita-ku, 700-8530, Okayama, Japan. perfect@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp.
Abstract:
Thermospermine, a structural isomer of spermine, is widely spread in the plant kingdom and has recently been shown to play a key role in the repression of xylem differentiation in vascular plants. However, a standard high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) protocol for detecting polyamines as their dansyl derivative cannot distinguish themospermine from spermine. These isomers become separated from each other after benzoylation. In this chapter, we describe a simple protocol for extraction, benzoylation, and HPLC detection of thermospermine and spermine with other polyamines from plant material.
