THE USE OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES IN PLANT PROTECTION AND FOR STUDYING VIRUS-INDUCED PATHOGENIC PROCESSES

摘要

Plantibody-based approaches are one of the most recent innovations in the field of molecular techniques for the analysis and manipulation of virus infection and plant cellular pathways. The resistance against plant-pathogenic viruses can be obtained, and activity of anti-virus agents can be targeted although it should be said that issues of intellectual property (= patent protection) must be addressed. There are indications that this approach can also be applied to more complex pathogens. Specific epitopes, instead of the whole proteins, could be targeted. Applying antibodies with the same target specificity but with different binding affinities might permit different levels of epitope blocking. It is possible that blocking a single epitope may leave other protein interactions intact, resulting in less pleiotropic effects than a total gene knock-out. In this way, the functional study of epitopes instead of complete proteins becomes feasible. As indicated by Morozov (this volume), the opportunity to express rAbs specifically in different organs, cells, and compartments of transgenic plants offers possibilities to study the cellular mode of action of regulatory factors but also to change disease severity for good or ill.