ИСТИНА

Viroids are the plant true molecular parasites. They are small, about 350 nucleotides circular RNA molecules with strong secondary structure. Viroids affect vegetables, citrus fruits, apple,palm, grapes, and ornamentals. Due to the high damage viroid diseases in many countries are considered quarantine. To detect the viroid in infected plants, laboratory methods are used based on the principle of the complementarity of the heterocyclic bases of nucleic acids and nucleic acid hybridization as DNA probing and RT-PCR. These methods need qualified personnel and laboratory equipment. The analysis is carried out within few hours. The purpose of the project - to transform diagnostic assay format of hybridization into immunochemical one. For practical diagnostics, the sensitivity of immunochemical methods is sufficient to determine the systemic infection and carrying out mass primary screening of the seed before planting or crop in the field. One of the objectives of the project includes the definition of the viroid infection in potato with the immunochip of low density to determine the infestation of potato with viruses, bacteria, and viroid on the test strip by multiplex immunoassay. It is obvious that this problem needed antibodies to viroid. However, viroid, like other RNAs is a weak antigen, rather hapten. Our preliminary results support the possibility of obtaining antibodies specific to the viral RNA, and, we believe, to the viroid. We are open for cooperation on this subject.