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Annals of Botany 89: 293-299, 2002
© 2002 Annals of Botany Company

Detection of Root Mucilage Using an Anti-fucose Antibody

S. SINHA ROY*,1, B. MITTRA2, S. SHARMA1, T. K. DAS3 and C. R. BABU1,2

1Department of Botany, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India, 2Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India and 3Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi 110029, India

* For correspondence. Fax 91 11 7666237, e-mail s_sinharoy{at}rediffmail.com

Received: 30 October 2001; Accepted: 25 November 2001.

Plant root mucilage is known to enhance soil quality by contributing towards the soil carbon pool, soil aggregation, detoxification of heavy metal ions and interactions with rhizospheric microflora. Mucilage consists of many monosaccharide units, including fucose which can be used as an indicator for plant root based polysaccharides. This is the first report of an immunological technique developed to use anti-fucose antibodies as markers for probing and localizing fucosyl residues in mucilage polysaccharide and, in turn, for localization of plant root mucilage. Fucose was complexed with bovine serum albumin to raise antibodies against fucose. A fucose-directed antibody was shown to cross-react with root cap mucilages from grasses. This antibody was used to localize root mucilage polysaccharide in maize and wheat root caps using immunogold electron microscopy. Abundant labelling could be localized on the cell wall, and in the intercellular matrix and vesicles of the peripheral root cap cells. Labelling was less intense in cells towards the centre of the root cap tissue. Control experiments confirmed that immunogold localization of fucose was specific and reliable.

Key words: Root mucilage, fucose, immunogold labelling, Zea mays, Triticum aestivum.


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