Research Tools: Ethylene Detection

Over the last decades, ethylene detection in plant physiological studies is mainly done through enclosing of the plant material under study for a period of time in a closed flask or container and analyzing the accumulated ethylene in the headspace using a gas chromatography equipped with a flame ionization detector. In most of the studies, this will give a reasonable measure of the in vivo ethylene production. However, especially the changing composition of the atmosphere may influence plant behavior and subsequently its ethylene production. Also, if such measurements are mostly done on excised plant parts, the induced wounding also may affect the total ethylene production. Therefore, there is clearly a need for more sensitive equipment to measure ethylene of whole plant or plant parts (in planta) in a flow-through situation. One direction is to further optimize standard GC equipment. This can be done, e.g., by using a more sensitive photoionization detector or through improved sampling and preconcentration devices. Another route is provided by other techniques including the laser-based detection or mass spectrometry that are inherently more sensitive and fast for ethylene measurement. This chapter discusses several of the available techniques for ethylene detection as well as the gas sampling approaches. Guidelines for proper selection and use of the described methods are provided together with examples of applications of monitoring ethylene production from various biological samples.