Department of Plant Pathology, GKVK, Bangalore - 560 065, India.
Rapid detection of Xanthomonas vesicatoria in the tomato seeds is very essential for preventing dissemination of bacteria and imposition of strict quarantines. Application of serodiagnostic tools will help to larger seed samples to avoid possible interceptions of disease. Hence, ELISA was applied with slight modification by using tetra methyl benzidine substrate with reduced duration of incubation. This technique was found to be more effective and rapid in detection of Xanthomonas vesicatoria in naturally infected seeds. The efficiency was better compared with the dilution planting methods with higher extinction values in seed extracts containing higher number of seeds (0.235–0.237). The pathogen population was detected was 318 colony forming unit/ml. ELISA can be applied as effective tool up to the detectable limit of ten per cent.
