Detection of Plant Viruses Via Enhanced Electrochemiluminiscence-PCR

Viruses can reduce crop productivity and affect the food supply and the environment. Many techniques have been developed for the detection of plant viruses. Examples include serological techniques and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of viral genomes. However, these current detection methods, says a group of Chinese researchers, are usually tedious, multi-stage, have low-sensitivity and high cost.

Ya-bing Tang and colleagues at the South China Normal University have reported a modified electrochemiluminiscence (ECL) technique to detect plant viruses. ECL refers to light that is emitted when a molecule is electrochemically stimulated. The group has improved the current ECL-PCR method by adding extra nucleotide sequences to the PCR primers. They tested the method by detecting papaya leaf curl virus in their plant samples.

The researchers report that they were able to increase the sensitivity of virus detection to 50 femto-mol (fmol) of PCR products with the modification. Normally the limit for ECL-PCR is 100 fmol. The method has also been reported by the group as a way to detect transgenic organisms in a previous study.

The abstract in Analytica Chimica Acta, with links to the full paper for subscribers, can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2006.09.021.