Determination of Inter-leaf Translocated Free Glyphosate in Arabidopsis thaliana using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LCMS/MS) after Derivatization with Fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl Chloride (FMOC-Cl)

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide widely used for eliminating weeds in crop fields. Its mode of action is believed to be via translocation from the source to the sink tissues where it then interferes with the activities of 5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). In this study, the translocation of glyphosate in the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana was investigated using an HPLC-MS/MS method following derivatization of the secondary amino group in the analyte using N-(9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyloxy) chloride. To eliminate the errant precipitation that occurred when the reagent and the analyte are mixed, optimization of this method was required. The method linearity has a correlation coefficient higher than 0.99 over the concentration range of 0.005-2 μM. The limits of detection and quantitation were estimated to be 0.002 μM and 0.008 μM respectively. The repeatability of the method (as%R.S.D) ranged from 10% to 13%. The presented method was employed for the determination of free glyphosate in young untreated leaves of the specimen plants after treating a single leaf and allowing it to stand for 12 hours.