Comparison of sensitivity of serological
and nucleic acid–based methods. The
sensitivity of M-TAS-ELISA and PCR was
compared with that of the hybridization
methods by quantifying the ssDNA concentration
in each EP2 sample by dot blot
according to the calibration curve constructed
with known amounts of purified
TYLCV DNA (Table 3). Using this reference,
M-TAS-ELISA was estimated to
detect TYLCV in samples with viral concentration
of >100 pg of viral ssDNA. PCR
was, as expected, more sensitive than hybridization
methods, detecting TYLCV in
samples with less than 1 pg of ssDNA, that
is, in less than 1 μg and 0.1 mg of fresh
tissue from susceptible and highly resistant
material, respectively.