Identification and measurement of indoleacetic and abscisic acids in the cambial region of Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr. by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and abscisic acid (ABA) were identified by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) in fractions obtained by diffusion and extraction from bark peelings of Sitka spruce. A procedure is described for the quantitative analysis of IAA and ABA levels in the same extract using the GCMS technique of single-ion current monitoring. This procedure was used to measure the diffusible, free, and bound fractions of IAA and ABA in the cambial region of Sitka spruce throughout one year; the range in concentration for these fractions was 0.06-0.30, 0.46-3.85, and 0.04-0.20 μg/g oven-dry weight, respectively, for IAA, and 0-0.08, 0.03-2.21, and 0.13-0.66 μg/g oven-dry weight, respectively, for ABA. Movement in the cambial region was found to be polar for endogenous IAA and nonpolar for endogenous ABA. Recoveries of [(14)C]IAA internal standards showed that 73-99.5% of the IAA was lost during purification, and that there could be up to 5-fold differences in recovery between purifications, indicating that IAA loss shold be measured in quantitative analyses.