Abstract:

There are three different views regarding pathogenic mechanism of pinewood nematode disease: enzymes, cavitation, toxins.Most conclusions are based upon the change of the morphology of infected wood, but fail in expounding the internal mechanism on the molecular level. A immuno-cytochemical method for detecting BX (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus)antigen in pinewood section was established with anti-BX serum. The method not only showed a new potential for the direct detection of BX on pine wood section, but also discovered yield information about BX and nematode solvable antigen in wood tissues, and could be further confirmed synthetic matrices on pathogen distribution. Combining aspects of ELISA and immunoblot, the method was specific to nematode antigen two species of Bursaphelenchus genus, and could identify 0.1 μg nematode protein on the surface of pinewood section. With this method, it was detected that the BX antigen in tracheid tissue of Pinus thunbergii which were representative of a natural infestation.

Key words: Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, nematode analysis, immunocytochemistry, ELISA