Abstract

Banana streak virus is serologically and genomically heterogenous worldwide and there has been the need to produce antibodies that can detect all known serotypes of this virus. Antibody production requires purified virus, since BSV titre is low in Musa tissues, there was the need for an efficient method of purifying the virus. We are reporting the first production of two monoclonal antibodies, BSV 3F9/1 and BSV 3D4/2, against an isolate of BSV. Culture fluids of BSV 3F9/1 and BSV 3D4/2 had antibody titres of 1:204,000 and 1:6400, by ELISA, respectively. The two monoclonal antibodies detected all isolates of BSV that were detected by the homologous mouse polyclonal antibodies. Caesium gradient centrifugation reduced yield of BSV during purification. We described a method of purification, which excluded the caesium gradient step and yet increased BSV yield by about 15-fold. The virus preparation obtained by this new method was used to produce BSV-specific mouse and rabbit polyclonal antibodies. These BSV monoclonal antibodies together with the polyclonal antibodies were used for the detection of BSV.

Key words: Banana streak virus, monoclonal antibodies, polyclonal antibodies, Musa, TAS-ELISA, polysynthetic antibodies, antigen-coated dot ELISA.