Md. Bandla et al., USE OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY TO THE NONSTRUCTURAL PROTEIN ENCODED BY THE SMALL RNA OF TOMATO SPOTTED WILT TOSPOVIRUS TO IDENTIFY VIRULIFEROUSTHRIPS, Phytopathology, 84(12), 1994, pp. 1427-1431
Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV) replicates in and is transmitted
by the western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis). Monoclonal
antibodies (MAbs) were made to the nonstructural protein (NSs) encode
d by the small RNA of TSWV. NSs is produced in thrips in which TSWV ha
s replicated and potentially could transmit TSWV. MAbs were used in an
tigen coated plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ACP-ELISA) with
the Zwitterionic detergent Empigen-BB (E-BB) at O.1%(a.i.) in antibody
dilution buffer to reduce nonspecific binding that results in high ab
sorbance readings of control samples, which are commonly observed with
insects in ACP-ELISA. With E-BB, a 10-fold difference in absorbance v
alues was observed between adult thrips that fed on healthy plants and
adult thrips that fed on virus-infected plants as larvae, compared to
ACP-ELISA with Tween 20, in which there was only a threefold differen
ce in absorbance values between the same samples of thrips. The utilit
y of ACP-ELISA in identifying viruliferous thrips was compared with tr
ansmission of TSWV by thrips to Petunia grandiflora. The two assays we
re in agreement 92% of the time. The errors were divided: 6% occurred
when ACP-ELISA detected thrips with NSs but the thrips were not identi
fied as transmitters in the plant transmission assay, and 2% occurred
when ACP-ELISA did not detect thrips that were positive in the plant t
ransmission assay. These findings show that ACP-ELISA with E-BB is a c
onservative and useful tool for identifying viruliferous thrips and ha
s potential for use in forecasting to manage TSWV epidemics.