Plant Protect. Sci., 2002, 38(10):239 | DOI: 10.17221/10362-PPS

Advances in the methods of detection of plant viruses and bacteria (abstract only)

M. Cambra, M.M. López, M.T. Gorris, P. Llop, E. Bertolini, A. Olmos

Serological and molecular techniques are the most appropriate for rapid and reliable detection of plant viruses and plant pathogenic bacteria when high numbers of samples need to be analysed. For viruses, the sample preparation step has been simplified trough the possibility to imprint or squash plant material or insect vectors in membranes, instead of performing extracts preparation, and trough the automatic purification of targets by robotics. Immobilised targets on membranes can be detected by tissue print-ELISA, imprint-hybridisation or print-PCR. For bacteria, the sensitivity has been improved by the selection of media and conditions for efficient enrichment of bacteria before target's detection by ELISA or PCR. Monoclonal and recombinant antibodies are contributing to improve specificity of the serological techniques. New variants of PCR as nested in a single closed tube, co-operative-PCR and real time monitoring of amplicons or quantitative PCR, have been developed. The general tendency is the use of techniques combining serological-molecular or molecular-serological methods for simultaneous detection of different pathogens in one assay, as multiplex-PCR with colorimetric detection of amplicons and the DNA chips or microarrays.

Published: June 30, 2002  Show citation