Abstract
The paucity of information on the spatial and temporal distribution of bacteria in the sea can be attributed, in good part, to the difficulties inherent in the present conventional microbiological methods for isolating and identifying marine bacteria. The application of the fluorescent antibody technique is proposed as a means of overcoming the impasse. The potentialities of this approach were examined using organisms of the Pseudomonas group. Cross-reactions between the immune globulins prepared to a strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens and the cells of a number of species of marine pseudomonads and non-pseudomonads were studied. The indirect staining procedure was found to be the method of choice. The pseudomonads gave definite fluorescence at intensities equal or nearly equal to that shown by P. fluorescens. The non-pseudomonads gave very weak, indefinite reactions. The results indicate, within the confines of the study, that it would be possible to identify pseudomonads from the marine environment and to differentiate them from non-pseudomonads.
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Communicated by G. L. Voss, Miami
Studies in Biology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Contribution No. 163, and Contribution from the Marine Sciences Research Laboratory, No. 35.
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Moskovits, G., Foelsche, K. Application of the fluorescent antibody technique to the identification of marine pseudomonads: a preliminary study. Marine Biology 5, 57–61 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00352492
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00352492