Indirect Immunofluorescence Microscopy for the Detection and Identification of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (In Particular for Ralstonia solanacearum)

Immunofluorescence microscopy is a very sensitive serological test which harnesses both the power of antibodies to bind to targets along with the use of the flourescence microscope to visualise the structures to which they bind. Antibody binding is visualised by the fluorescent emission from a marker molecule bound to the antibody. The technique is of particular use in bacteriology and pathology where the location and morphology of the bacterial cells can be viewed along with the location of the fluorescently labelled antibodies.