Chapter 15
Quantification of Strigolactones
Carlos Rial, Rosa M. Varela, Jose ´ M. G. Molinillo, Alexandra G. Dura ´ n,
and Francisco A. Macı ´as
Abstract
Strigolactones (SLs) are a family of natural products produced by the plants as shoot branching factors and
responsible for the induction of hyphal branching in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. They have been
also used by parasitic plant seeds as stimulators of their germination as a strategy to ensure the presence of a
host in the environment. For all these bioactivities, SLs have kept the attention of the researchers in the last
years, increasing the number of published papers, and have opened new areas of research in the multiple
roles that they play in the rhizosphere and as plant hormones. However, the low amount of them produced
by plants and their rapid degradability make it crucial to develop fast analytical methods with very low limits
of quantification. Herein, it is described a protocol for the development of an LC-MS/MS method for the
quantification of SLs, using GR24 as IS, in roots exudates and extracts.
Key words Strigolactones, Quantification method, LC-MS/MS, Carotenoids, Parasitic weeds,
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
1 Introduction
Strigolactones (SLs) are a family of compounds derived from carotenoids, [1, 2] which were firstly identified as stimulators of the
germination of parasitic plants seeds [3, 4]. Parasitic plants are
some of the most damaging agricultural pests, due to they reduce
the yield of very important crops such as, maize, rice, legumes,
tomato, sunflower, etc. [5, 6]. In 2005, they were also identified as
branching factor for arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi [7, 8] and in
2008 two research groups described simultaneously that SLs have an
endogenous role as plant hormone, regulating shoot branching
[9, 10]. Due to all these results, SLs have kept the attention of the
researchers in the last years, increasing the number of published
papers, and opening new areas of research in the multiple roles that
they play in the rhizosphere and as plant hormones [11].
Since the discovery of strigol as the first SLs isolated, 23 canonical and 6 noncanonical SLs have been isolated (Fig. 1). However,
Manuel Rodrı ´guez-Concepcio ´ n and Ralf Welsch (eds.), Plant and Food Carotenoids: Methods and Protocols,
Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2083, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9952-1_15,
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
199
Quantification of Strigolactones
Carlos Rial, Rosa M. Varela, Jose ´ M. G. Molinillo, Alexandra G. Dura ´ n,
and Francisco A. Macı ´as
Abstract
Strigolactones (SLs) are a family of natural products produced by the plants as shoot branching factors and
responsible for the induction of hyphal branching in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. They have been
also used by parasitic plant seeds as stimulators of their germination as a strategy to ensure the presence of a
host in the environment. For all these bioactivities, SLs have kept the attention of the researchers in the last
years, increasing the number of published papers, and have opened new areas of research in the multiple
roles that they play in the rhizosphere and as plant hormones. However, the low amount of them produced
by plants and their rapid degradability make it crucial to develop fast analytical methods with very low limits
of quantification. Herein, it is described a protocol for the development of an LC-MS/MS method for the
quantification of SLs, using GR24 as IS, in roots exudates and extracts.
Key words Strigolactones, Quantification method, LC-MS/MS, Carotenoids, Parasitic weeds,
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
1 Introduction
Strigolactones (SLs) are a family of compounds derived from carotenoids, [1, 2] which were firstly identified as stimulators of the
germination of parasitic plants seeds [3, 4]. Parasitic plants are
some of the most damaging agricultural pests, due to they reduce
the yield of very important crops such as, maize, rice, legumes,
tomato, sunflower, etc. [5, 6]. In 2005, they were also identified as
branching factor for arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi [7, 8] and in
2008 two research groups described simultaneously that SLs have an
endogenous role as plant hormone, regulating shoot branching
[9, 10]. Due to all these results, SLs have kept the attention of the
researchers in the last years, increasing the number of published
papers, and opening new areas of research in the multiple roles that
they play in the rhizosphere and as plant hormones [11].
Since the discovery of strigol as the first SLs isolated, 23 canonical and 6 noncanonical SLs have been isolated (Fig. 1). However,
Manuel Rodrı ´guez-Concepcio ´ n and Ralf Welsch (eds.), Plant and Food Carotenoids: Methods and Protocols,
Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2083, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9952-1_15,
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
199