Blueberry Red Ringspot Virus Detection in Crude Sap of Highbush Blueberry Plants. R. F. Hepp, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, Universidad de Concepción, Chillán, Chile. R. H. Converse, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331. Plant Dis. 71:536-539. Accepted for publication 22 January 1987. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1987. DOI: 10.1094/PD-71-0536.

A two-animal ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) was developed to detect blueberry red ringspot virus (BBRRSV) in crude blueberry sap after ELISA with antiserum from one species proved unsatisfactory. Use of polyclonal mouse anti-BBRRSV globulin from ascites fluid as the detecting globulin after use of rabbit anti-BBRRSV as the trapping globulin pérmitted the routine detection of BBRRSV in crude sap from infected blueberry leaves during late summer and early autumn. This two-animal ELISA system also was useful for detecting BBRRSV in bark of fully dormant, infected blueberry shoots and provided a simple, reliable method of identifying latent infections of BBRRSV in dormant blueberry nursery stock.

Keyword(s): Vaccinium corymbosum.