Quantification of Blumenol Derivatives as Leaf Biomarkers for Plant-AMF Association

Mindt E, Wang M, Schäfer M, Halitschke R, Baldwin IT

Abstract

Symbiotic interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plants are widespread among land plants and can be beneficial for both partners. The plant is provided with mineral nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, whereas it provides carbon resources for the fungus in return. Due to the large economic and environmental impact, efficient characterization methods are required to monitor and quantify plant-AMF colonization. Existing methods, based on destructive sampling and elaborate root tissue analysis, are of limited value for high-throughput (HTP) screening. Here we describe a detailed protocol for the HTP quantification of blumenol derivatives in leaves by a simple extraction procedure and sensitive liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis as accurate proxies of root AMF-associations in both model plants and economically relevant crops.