Construction of Antibodies for Detection and Diagnosis of Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus from Watermelon Plants

We immunized BALB/c mice with purified Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus isolate HY1 (CGMMV-HY1). Through the selection of positive clones that were grown on the HAT medium, four sensitive monoclonal clones (CG99-01, CG99-02, CG99-03, and CG99-04) were selected from 500 Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase positive hybridoma cells. Four sensitive clones of CGMMV-HYI were determined as IgM type of the subclass of mouse immunoglobulins Ig group. The titer of monoclonal antiserum against CGMMVHY1 was estimated 1:12,800 by the indirect ELISA. Although monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) from CG99-01 and from CG99-04 cross-reacted with Zucchini green mottle mosaic virus and Kyuri green mottle mosaic virus, MAb from the cell line CG99-03 was highly specific to CGMMV. No MAbs cross-reacted with Cucumber mosaic virus-Fny. Only CG99-04 reacted with Pepper mild mottle virus weakly and CG99-02 reacted with both CGMMV and KGMMV. CGMMV was detected from the rind of watermelon fruit by DAS-ELISA of CGMMV-HY1, but not from the flesh of watermelon. Average seed transmission rate of CGMMV in watermelon was $24\%$ from symptomatic watermelon collected from 5 regions of Gyeongnam province. CGMMV was detected by DAS-ELISA with specific MAb of CGMMVHY1 periodically from root stock, during the sequential process for nursery seedling in Haman. Necrotic spots on cotyledons of root stock seedling progressed to reveal the typical symptomatology on the primary leaves of scion upon grafting. Here, we have established MAb based ELISA system, which could accurately detect CGMMV from watermelon seeds, nursery seedlings, transplants and field samples from greenhouse or open out door field as well.