Tirchothecene mycotoxins are produced by several genera of fungi and cause serious illness and death in animals and humans. In spite of a need by the USDA and agricultural companies for the ability to rapidly detect and quantitate trichothecenes and other mycotoxins, current methods are highly specialized laborious procedures which require trained personnel and a laboratory setting. In this phase II proposal we propose to extend our successful phase I efforts on the generation of anti-trichothecene (T-2) monoclonal antibodies. Specifically we plan to prepare antibody-enzyme conjugates, and investigate the use of a fluorescent vs. a calorimetric assay protocol for the convenient, rapid, and sensitive measurement of T-2 and related trichothecenes in biological and agricultural samples. These methods will be useful for 'field" (non-laboratory) measurements of mycotoxins, and may help further applications to analysis of herbicides, pesticides and other agricultural pollutants.
