DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIBODY TO RALSTONIA SOLANACEARUM AND ITS APPLICATION FOR DETECTION OF BACTERIAL WILT

The serological assay for the detection of bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (RS)was able to provide information regarding the presence of the pathogen in plant materials. Theresearch is was aimed to develop polyclonal antibody (PAb) for RS detection. Bacterial wholecells of RS isolates mixed with glutaraldehyde were used to immunize New Zealand femalewhite rabbit. The titre of antibody in culture supernatant was 1: 1024. The PAb developed froma ground nut RS isolates reacted with infected plant samples from various locations. It was ableto detect RS antigen of crude extract and pure cultures from tomato and potato plant samples4-5using dot blot ELISA; however, the minimum detectable concentration of RS antigen was 10cells/ml. The PAb obtained in this study is sensitive enough to detect RS isolates in routineserological assay