Fast and Sensitive Detection of Plant Hormones by Ion Mobility Spectrometry

The Plant Hormones (PHs) influence the plant growth, seed germination, fruit maturation, and fruit ripening, hence they play significant roles in the production of food crops.

The detection of PHs is thus of great importance for the plant physiology studies and for research and applications in agriculture.

The conventional PHs detection techniques employ mainly high-performance liquid and gas chromatography (HPLC, GC) and their combination with mass spectrometry. These techniques are reliable and sensitive; however, time demanding and require complex sample preparation methods. The Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) has the potential to be developed as a fast and sensitive detection method for PHs.

The objective of this project is to apply the IMS technique for PHs detection.

Within the project, we plan to optimize operation parameters of IMS to improve the sensitivity and selectivity, and also to develop suitable sampling methods and methodology for detection of the PHs from plants and for online monitoring.

The host institution (HI) offers an excellent multidisciplinary research environment and enables the fellow access to their unique experimental techniques in the field of IMS instrumentation including IMS-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (IMS-TOFMS).

In addition, HI will provide expertise in the field of ion chemistry, plasma physics, access to available analytical methods, and interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of plant physiology.

The fellow will contribute with her unique experience in the application of IMS in analytical sciences, to develop the sampling methods and methodology of IMS measurements of PHs.

The project will boost the fellow’s research skills, enables her to gain experience in interdisciplinary research, and start an independent researcher career.