Purification of grapevine flavescence dorée MLO (Mycoplasma-like organism) by immunoaffinity

Abstract

To date MLO (Mycoplasma-like organism) remain non-culturable organisms and are difficult to extract in good conditions of purity and conservation from infected hosts (plants or leafhopper vectors). An immunoaffinity procedure that permits the purification of large quantities of Grapevine Flavescence doree MLO (FD-MLO) is described, with covalently bound and oriented IgG molecules of a previously obtained anti-FD-MLO monoclonal antibody and elution of antigens in alkaline conditions. Evidence for purity and integrity of the eluted MLO is presented. The two main antigenic components detected by rabbit polyclonal antibodies to FD-MLO were shown to be different proteins and to contain different epitopes with the use of different monoclonal antibodies. DNA extracted from the purified FD-MLO fraction hybridized with an FD-MLO DNA-specific probe.