Quantitative Determination of the Gibberellins GA3 and GA1 in Spruce (Picea abies [L.]) Needles by a Highly Specific Enzyme Immunoassay

Summary The gibberellins GA 1 and GA 3 were quantitatively determined in needle extracts from spruce ( Picea abies [L.]). The phytohormones were purified by several extraction procedures and by HPLC, and detected by a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The performance of the EIA was validated by monitoring the parallelism of the logit-log transformed curves of standard and extract dilutions, and by spiking the samples with known amounts of GA. The concentrations of GA 3 were higher than GA 1 in all samples tested so far. Furthermore, GA 3 levels in needles of strongly damaged trees with yellowing symptoms exceeded those of healthy trees.