Single antibody dot immunoassay--a simple technique for rapid detection of a plant virus.

A single antibody dot immunoassay (SADI) was developed for use as a rapid, simple and sensitive technique for the direct assay of virus bound to nitrocellulose membranes. SADI has been tested for the detection of subterranean clover mottle virus (SCMoV) in small amounts of infected tissue and purified virus preparations, and the technique was found to be twelve times more sensitive than ELISA in terms of total antigen detected. DIBA, an indirect dot immunoassay, was about twice as sensitive as SADI, but the latter was more specific for the detection of SCMoV and is a simpler, more rapid assay, requiring less than three h to complete.