Project Number: 6402-22000-047-28
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Apr 09, 2004
End Date: Sep 30, 2007

Objective:
To develop a monoclonal antibody-based diagnostic kit to identify and distinguish between early stage larvae of the tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens and the bollworm, Helicoverpa zea.

Approach:
Only slight, often unreliable morphological characters can distinguish between the larvae of the tobacco budworm and the bollworm. USDA, ARS, SIMRU will collect these larvae from various hosts during the entire growing season. These samples will be frozen in liquid Nitrogen and shipped to Kansas state University. Researchers at KSU will develop monoclonal antibodies and a subsequent ELISA kit to distinguish between the larvae of the species. In addition, USDA, ARS, SIMRU will verify the specificity of the antibodies using a PCR-SNP technique.