Determining Glutathione Levels in Plants

Upon exposure to abiotic stresses, plants tend to accumulate excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that inturn react with cellular lipids, proteins, and DNA. Therefore, decreasing ROS accumulation is indispensible to survive under stress, which is accomplished by inducing enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant defense pathways. Glutathione, particularly reduced glutathione (GSH), represents a principal anitioxidant that could decrease ROS through scavenging them directly or indirectly through ascorbate-glutathione cycle or GSH peroxidases. Glutathione content can be determined using HPLC or spectrophotometric assays. In this chapter, we provided detailed assays to determine total, reduced, and oxidized gluathione using spectrophotometric method.