Use of Monoclonal Antibodies for the Serological Differentiation of Wheat and Oat Furoviruses

Twenty monoclonal antibodies "MAbs# to Chinese wheat mosaic virus "CWMV# were produced by immunizing BALB:c mice with puri_ed CWMV[ These MAbs and polyclonal antisera againstCWMV and soil!borne wheat mosaic virus Oklahoma isolate "SBWMV!Okl# were used to di}erentiate the wheat and oat furoviruses\ CWMVSBWMV\ oat golden stripe virus "OGSV# and European wheat mosaic virus "EWMV#[ Enzyme!linked immuno! sorbent assays and Western blotting showed that the dominant epitope"s# of CWMVwas shared partially with OGSV whereas those of SBWMV were shared with CWMV\ OGSV and EWMV in varying degrees[ When CWMV virions were brie~y digested with trypsin\ coat protein fragments of about 01\ 09 and 7 kDa were pro! duced and these reacted with the polyclonal antisera and some MAbs\ indicating that they contained dominant epitopes of CWMV and SBWMV[ Computer analysis of the coat protein sequences suggested that the epitope shared betweenCWMVand OGSV was located at amino acids 24 39\ whereas the dominant epitopes of SBWMVwhich were shared with CWMV\ EWMV and OGSVwere in the C terminal half of the coat protein