Direct Stem Blot Immunoassay (DSBIA): A Rapid, Reliable and Economical Detection Technique Suitable for Testing Large Number of Barley Materials for Field Monitoring and Resistance Screening to Barley mild mosaic virus and Barley yellow mosaic virus

Testing a large number of samples from field monitoring and routine indexing is cumbersome and the available virus detection tools were labor intensive and expensive. To circumvent these problems we established tissue blot immunoassay (TBIA) method an alternative detection tool to detect Barley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV) and Barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV) infection in the field and greenhouse inoculated plants for monitoring and routine indexing applications, respectively. Initially, leaf and stem were tested to determine suitable plant tissue for direct blotting on nitrocellulose membrane. The dilutions of antibodies were optimized for more efficient and economical purposes. Results showed that stem tissue was more suitable for direct blotting for it had no background that interferes in the reaction. Therefore, this technique was referred as direct stem blot immunoassay or DSBIA, in this study. Re-used diluted (1:1000) antiserum and conjugate up to 3 times with the addition of half strength amount of concentrated antibodies was more effective in detecting the virus. The virus blotted on the nitrocellulose membrane from stem tissues kept at room temperature for 3 days were still detectable. The efficiency of DSBIA and RT-PCR in detecting BaMMV and BaYMV were relatively comparable. Results further proved that DSBIA is a rapid, reliable and economical detection method suitable for monitoring BaMMV and BaYMV infection in the field and practical method in indexing large scale of barley materials for virus resistance screening.