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Rapid determination of spore chemistry using thermochemolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

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Abstract

Spore chemistry is at the centre of investigations aimed at producing a proxy record of harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV-B) through time. A biochemical proxy is essential owing to an absence of long-term (century or more) instrumental records. Spore cell material contains UV-B absorbing compounds that appear to be synthesised in variable amounts dependent on the ambient UV-B flux. To facilitate these investigations we have developed a rapid method for detecting variations in spore chemistry using combined thermochemolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Our method was tested using spores obtained from five populations of the tropical lycopsid Lycopodium cernuum growing across an altitudinal gradient (650-1981 m a.s.l.) in S.E. Asia with the assumption that they experienced a range of UV-B radiation doses. Thermochemolysis and subsequent pyrolysis liberated UV-B pigments (ferulic and para-coumaric acid) from the spores. All of the aromatic compounds liberated from spores by thermochemolysis and pyrolysis were active in UV-B protection. The various functional groups associated with UV-B protecting pigments were rapidly detected by micro-FTIR and included the aromatic C?C absorption band which was exclusive to the pigments. We show increases in micro-FTIR aromatic absorption (1510 cm−1) with altitude that may reflect a chemical response to higher UV-B flux. Our results indicate that rapid chemical analyses of historical spore samples could provide a record ideally suited to investigations of a proxy for stratospheric O3 layer variability and UV-B flux over historical (century to millennia) timescales.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK, MK7 6AA

    Jonathan S. Watson & Iain Gilmour

  2. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, UK, SW7 2AZ

    Mark A. Sephton

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK, MK7 6AA

    Sarah V. Sephton, Stephen Self & Wesley T. Fraser

  4. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, S10 2TN

    Barry H. Lomax, Charles H. Wellman & David J. Beerling

Authors
  1. Jonathan S. Watson
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  2. Mark A. Sephton
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  3. Sarah V. Sephton
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  4. Stephen Self
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  5. Wesley T. Fraser
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  6. Barry H. Lomax
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  7. Iain Gilmour
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  8. Charles H. Wellman
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  9. David J. Beerling
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Correspondence to Mark A. Sephton.

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Watson, J.S., Sephton, M.A., Sephton, S.V. et al. Rapid determination of spore chemistry using thermochemolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Photochem Photobiol Sci 6, 689–694 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1039/b617794h

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/b617794h

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