A NEW MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY FOR THE SENSITIVE DETECTION OF ATRAZINE WITH IMMUNOASSAY IN MICROTITER PLATE AND DIPSTICK FORMAT

To develop atrazine-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb), hybridoma ce lls were produced by the fusion of mouse myeloma cells (PAI-B3AG8I) an d spleen cells from mice immunized with ylamino)-1,3,5-triazine-2-(6-a minohexanecarboxylic acid) coupled to keyhole limpet hemocyanin. After screening with a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA ), a mAb with a high binding affinity for atrazine was selected and us ed to develop a sensitive competitive direct ELISA in a microtiter pla te and a dipstick format. With the microtiter plate ELISA atrazine can be determined in the range from 0.03 to 1 mug/L with a test centerpoi nt at 0.1 mug/L. The mAb cross-reacts predominantly with propazine (13 6%) and to a lower extent with cyanazine (28%) and terbuthylazine (26% ). The use of a dipstick format allows the quick visual detection of a trazine in concentrations above 0.5 mug/L in aqueous samples within ab out 20 min.