At the moment I'm characterizing bacteria strains that may benefit the growth of tomato plants during a drought. To characterize the bacteria strains, the ethylene production of the tomato plants has to be measured.
I have a head space gas chromatograph with an rxi 5sil ms column (30 m in length and an internal diameter of 0,25 mm) and an FID that can measure a few nmol ethylene per liter gas.
Can the concentration of ethylene in tomato plant leaves be measured with the gas chromatograph I've described?
I would appreciate your help.
Practically I only measured fruit, but theoretically you can. Put the leaves in a gas-tight container, cover with the lid mounted on the septa and keep it closed for at least 1 hour. You can then measure and calculate by taking 1 mL of gas from the container and injecting it into the GC.
You can also check this article.
https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.70.1.136
I will add to the response of Dr. Hayri. It is perfectly possible to do as recommended by Dr. Hayri, the only concern is the amount of time you have to keep the leaf in a tight container - and that you need to test out, because, eventually after one hour in a sealed container the CO2 production could build up to a concentration that could inhibit ethylene synthesis. In detached fruit we have seen one hour does not lead to that inhibition, but leaves with a high photosynthetic activity the concentrations of CO2 could become to high as to inhibit ethylene synthesis.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Computer Science and Engineering
- Computer Graphics and Animation
- 3D