Polyclonal antisera production by immunization with mixed cell antigens of different rhizobial species

✍ Scribed by H. J. Hoben; P. Somasegaran; N. Boonkerd; Y. D. Gaur

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 459 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-0972
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00367662

✦ Synopsis

Somatic antigens of Bradyrhizobium japonicum, Rhizabium sp. (Cicer arietinum) and Rhizobium sp. (Leucaena leucocephala) were prepared as standard, single-species type from cultured cells. Equal numbers of the cells of these rhizobia were then combined to obtain a mixed-rhizobial-species antigen preparation. Rabbits were immunized either with the standard, single-species type or with the mixed-rhizobial-species antigen preparations. The antisera developed from the mixed antigen immunization contained antibodies for all three rhizobial species, detectable at agglutination titres of over 800. The mixed-rhizobial-species antisera were made species specific by cross-absorption. The cross-absorbed and the mixed-rhizobial-species antisera were generally similar in quality for strain identification by agglutination, fluorescent antibodies, immunoblot and ELISA. A 66% reduction in cost was estimated for the production of antisera by immunization with mixed-rhizobial-species antigen.