title: R-phycoerythrin as a fluorescent label for immunolocalization of bound atrazine residues.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Botanik, Fakultät für Landwirtschaft und Gartenbau, Technische Universität München, Freising, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sautter
mesh_terms: D001280:Atrazine / Q000032:analysis*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D010799:Phycoerythrin; D010944:Plants / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D010799:Phycoerythrin; D001280:Atrazine