ARS | Publication request: ELISA ANALYSIS FOR FUSARIUM IN BARLEY: APPLICATION IN FIELD NURSERIES

Submitted to: American Society of Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: June 15, 2006
Publication Date: November 12, 2006
Citation: Hill, N., Neate, S., Cooper, B., Horsley, R., Schwarz, P., Dahleen, L.S., Smith, K., Dill-Mackey, R. 2006. Elisa analysis for fusarium in barley: application in field nurseries. American Society of Agronomy Abstracts. [CD-ROM] ASA, CSSA, SSSA, Madison, WI.

Technical Abstract: Previously we described a system of quantifying Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in barley by ELISA. ELISA had lower variability (lower CV's) than visual scoring or deoxynivalenol (DON) analyses. Thus we tested ELISA, DON, and visual assessment of FHB in 1) selections from a barley doubled-haploid mapping population grown in two environments and 2) the North American barley scab evaluation nursery grown at four locations. Visual FHB evaluations and DON had genotype x environment interactions typically found in FHB experiments. However, ELISA had no genotype x environment interaction in either study. Correlations between FHB and DON or FHB and ELISA were significant, but low (r'0.5). Correlations between DON and ELISA were also significant but low (r'0.6). Scattergrams of visual vs. ELISA estimates of FHB suggest visual symptomology is not correlated with abundance of Fusarium on the grain. We conducted laboratory experiments to explain how environmental parameters might explain inconsistency in DON and whether those parameters affected ELISA. In addition we tested for abundance of the antigen specific to the monoclonal antibody used in the ELISA analysis. There was a temperature by osmotic potential interactive effect on DON production in laboratory-grown cultures of Fusarium spp. Neither temperature nor osmotic potential had an effect on abundance of antigen in mycelium. Therefore, ELISA is a more robust estimate of FHB than DON.