Use of a monoclonal antibody to detect gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) in strawberry
Mohr, Alexandra J
M.Sc. McGill University (Canada), 2002, 72 pages
2002
บทคัดย่อ
Gray mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea is the major cause of postharvest loss in strawberries. Detection of flower and fruit infections enables producers to make intelligent management decisions. A plate-trapped ELISA protocol using a Botrytis -specific monoclonal antibody (BC-12.CA4) was developed for the detection of Botrytis cinerea in strawberry flower receptacles and red fruits. Horseradish peroxidase, was chosen as enzyme conjugate because it gave lower background absorbance in disease-free samples. B. cinerea reference antigen (RAg) was isolated from strawberry. BC-12.CA4 was very sensitive to the RAg, detecting up to 6 mg/ml of RAg when mixed with strawberry extracts. The MAb did not show any reaction to Rhizopus sp., Mucor sp. and Penicillium sp. associated with strawberry. B. cinerea could be detected in receptacles two days after inoculation. Treatment of inoculated receptacles with paraquat speeded-up detection. Inoculated red fruit infection could be detected after three days of incubation. Disease in commercially-produced receptacles and red fruits were assessed visually and by ELISA. The ELISA detected B. cinerea in 95% of commercial flower samples, whereas the traditional visual method detected only 50 to 70%. No dramatic differences between methods were found for red fruits.