Immunomagnetic isolation of Xanthomonas campestris pv. pelargonii

Immunomagnetic fishing was developed as an improved procedure for increasing the bacterial target to non-target recovery ratio in suspensions containing mixtures of target and non-target organisms. A cell suspension containing the target Xanthomonas campestris pv. pelargonii and non-target organisms, is treated with rabbit polyclonal antiserum against X.c. pv. pelargonii and incubated for 1 h. The suspension is then mixed with paramagnetic iron oxide particles coated with goat anti-rabbit antibodies (immunomagnetic particles). After incubation, the polished surface of a 14 mm diameter neodymium supermagnet is placed at the air-water interace and the magnetic particles are attracted to the magnet. After all visible magnetic particles have attached to the bottom of the magnet, the magnet is dipped in sterile buffer to remove non-target organisms. The magnet with attached magnetic particles is rubbed evenly over an agar surface to dislodge the particles and attached bacteria. Conventional immunomagnetic isolation (immunomagnetic attraction) and immunomagnetic fishing were compared, for the recovery of the target organism in geranium leaf washings spiked with X.c. pv. pelargonii. With immunomagnetic attraction and immunomagnetic fishing, bacterial non-target organisms were reduced to 11.4 and 1.5% of the initial population, respectively, whereas the target was only reduced to 63.7 and 53.8%.