Abstract
Ascorbate (Asc, also called vitamin C) is of vital importance to the cellular functions of both animals and plants. During evolution, Asc has become one of the most abundant metabolites in seed plants; however, Asc contents in cyanobacteria, green algae and bryophytes are very low. Here we describe a sensitive and reliable HPLC method for the quantitative determination of cellular Asc content in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
Keywords: Ascorbate, Cell counter, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, HPLC, Dehydroascorbate
Background
Previous protocols for the determination of cellular Asc content were developed for higher plants, of which the amounts of cellular Asc are high enough for the analysis. Those protocols are not suitable for green algae, since both the amounts of the plant material and the levels of the cellular Asc are usually limited. Therefore, there was a need to develop a novel method with sensitivity improved to the µM range to measure the cellular Asc in green algae.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Lendület/Momentum Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (LP-2014/19) and the National, Research and Development Office (research grant NN114524).
References
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