Monoclonal antibodies against a plant virus

Eight stable hybridoma clones derived from fusion of spleen cells of Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) immunized mice with murine myeloma cells were grown in mass culture. They were obtained by 2 subsequent limiting dilution cloning cycles and subcultivation. Five of these clones secreted monoclonal antibodies which reacted with TMV nucleocapsid but not with capsid monomers and the monoclonal antibodies secreted by 3 other clones reacted with the TMV capsid monomer but not with the nucleocapsid. The specificity was determined by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) adjusted for the detection of antibodies in hybridoma culture supernatants.