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Serological Assays for Oat Blue Dwarf Virus. E. E. Banttari, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108; Phytopathology 71:1242-1244. Accepted for publication 18 March 1981. Copyright 1981 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-71-1242.

Agar double diffusion (DD), latex flocculation (LF), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EIA) were effective for detecting oat blue dwarf virus (OBDV) in barley, oat, and flax plants. In DD plates, visible precipitin bands were obtained by using a constant concentration of clarified sap extract from oat plants as the antigen and an optimum antiserum dilution between 1:8 and 1:32. At a constant 1:16 dilution of antiserum, antigen dilution end points of partially clarified concentrated sap extracts of OBDV-infected barley, oat, and flax plants were 1:4, 1:8, and 1:16, respectively. In LF assays, antigen dilution end points of nonconcentrated sap extracts of barley, oats, and flax were 1:16, 1:16, and 1:32, respectively, determined by using latex-sensitized OBDV γ-globulin diluted 1:800 to 1:1,400. Antigen dilution end points of nonconcentrated plant sap from OBDV-infected barley, oats, and flax were 1:28, 1:128, and 1:512, respectively, when assayed by EIA. All serological assays indicated that the OBDV titer in flax was at least twofold higher than in oat or barley plants.