R-phycoerythrin as a fluorescent label for immunolocalization of bound atrazine residues |
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Authors: | G Sohn C Sautter |
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Institution: | Lehrstuhl für Botanik, Fakult?t für Landwirtschaft und Gartenbau, Technische Universit?t München, Freising, Federal Republic of Germany. |
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Abstract: | We established a highly sensitive immunofluorescence procedure for localizing bound atrazine in the aquatic macrophytes Elodea canadensis and E. densa. The technique included biotin-labeled anti-rabbit IgG as a first enhancement step and R-phycoerythrin (R-PE) coupled to streptavidin for fluorescent labeling as a second improvement on the procedure. A comparison with the conventional indirect immunofluorescence method confirmed the superior results of the R-PE approach. The use of atrazine-free plants (grown in charcoal-filtered water) and a variety of other controls excluded both contaminating atrazine and nonspecific incubation constituents as sources of tissue staining. Pre-incubations to block nonspecific binding sites proved to be unnecessary in this system. The highly sensitive procedure described here might be a useful tool for the localization of tissue-bound pesticides in general and possibly of other haptens as well. |
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