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Updated: Dec 1, 2025
High-Throughput Measurement and Classification of Organic P in Environmental Samples
Published on: June 8, 2011
A simple high-throughput protocol for the extraction and quantification of inorganic phosphate in rice leaves
Sompop Pinit1,2, Supachitra Chadchawan1, Juthamas Chaiwanon1
1Center of Excellence in Environment and Plant Physiology Department of Botany Faculty of Science Chulalongkorn University Bangkok 10330 Thailand.
Premise:
Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient that is often limited in agricultural systems. Determining inorganic phosphate (Pi) contents of plant tissues is crucial for evaluating plant P status. Here, we present a simple, high-throughput colorimetric microplate technique to measure Pi contents in rice (Oryza sativa) leaf tissues, based on the molybdenum blue reaction.
Methods And Results:
We used a hole puncher to sample small equal areas of leaf tissue for Pi extraction. We removed the leaf grinding and weighing steps, which are time-consuming and normally required to release Pi from the tissues and to measure the biomass for data normalization, respectively. We showed that the punching method yielded comparable results to the conventional grinding method for two rice cultivars grown under various levels of P supply.
Conclusions:
Compared with existing techniques, this protocol is more suited to an initial screening, enabling one researcher to determine the Pi contents of thousands of rice leaf samples within a few hours.
