Use of monoclonal antibodies for the serological differentiation of wheat and oat furoviruses

Twenty monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to Chinese wheat mosaic virus (CWMV) we re produced by immunizing BALB/c mice with purified CWMV. These MAbs and po lyclonal antisera against CWMV and soil-borne wheat mosaic virus Oklahoma i solate (SBWMV-Ok1) were used to differentiate the wheat and oat furoviruses , CWMV, SBWMV, oat golden stripe virus (OGSV) and European wheat mosaic vir us (EWMV), Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and Western blotting showed t hat the dominant epitope(s) of CWMV was shared partially with OGSV whereas those of SBWMV were shared with CWMV, OGSV and EWMV in varying degrees. Whe n CWMV virions were briefly digested with trypsin, coat protein fragments o f about 12, 10 and 8 kDa were produced and these reacted with the polyclona l antisera and some MAbs, indicating that they contained dominant epitopes of CWM V and SBWMV. Computer analysis of the coat protein sequences suggest ed that the epitope shared between CWMV and OGSV was located at amino acids 35-40, whereas the dominant epitopes of SBWMV, which were shared with CWMV , EWMV and OGSV, were in the C terminal half of the coat protein.