Open AccessR-phycoerythrin as a fluorescent label for immunolocalization of bound atrazine residues.
Author(s) -
Gabriele Sohn,
Christof Sautter
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry/the journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.971
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1551-5044
pISSN - 0022-1554
DOI - 10.1177/39.7.1865109
Subject(s) - atrazine , phycoerythrin , chemistry , fluorescence , hapten , elodea canadensis , immunofluorescence , chromatography , umbelliferone , incubation , conjugate , staining , biochemistry , pesticide , microbiology and biotechnology , macrophyte , biology , aquatic plant , antibody , flow cytometry , coumarin , agronomy , organic chemistry , mathematics , mathematical analysis , ecology , genetics , quantum mechanics , immunology , physics
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.