Agrisera blog

• Loading controls for plant and algal samples
• Available off-the-shelf
• Tested in a wide range of species
• Cited in thousands of publications
• Suitable for various applications
• Target different comparments and MW

All loading control antibodies can be found here.

Agrisera loading controls are offered at a 20% discount until the end of 2023.

Use discount code: LC20
Valid October-December 2023

• Abiotic and Oxidative Stress
• Bioinformatics and Computational Modelling
• Biotechnology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Molecular Biology
• Molecular Breeding
• Plant Signalling and Development
• Plant Systems Biology

• Cell structure and function
• Gene expression and plant development
• Epigenetic and epitranscriptomic regulation of gene expression
• Transport and intercellular communication
• Mitochondria and chloroplasts in cell metabolism
• Integrating plant functions via signaling molecules
• Mechanisms of stress tolerance
• Plant–microbe interaction
• Plant secondary metabolites

 
Left image: Agrisera booth.

Right image, left to right: Joanna Wójtowicz (awardee), Michał Rurek (Organizing cometee), Joanna Porankiewicz Asplund (Agrisera).

Agrisera supported the 6th Plants and People (P&P) Conferences, organized by PhD students at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, in Potsdam-Golm, Germany, between the 6th and 7th of September.

The theme for this year's Plants and People Conference was "Exploring Plan(t)s", which brought together a diverse collection of international speakers, both from academic and non-academic fields of plant science. The academic aspect of the conference featured talks on a multitude of subjects in plant biology, including photosynthesis, epigenetics, plant-microbe interactions, and metabolomics. 

Participants could pick up their own copies of Agrisera Educational Posters, and the Agrisera Best Poster Prize was awarded. 

Since Agrisera's start in 1985, we have always delivered on our promises, and if there are ever any delays in shipments, we inform you very promptly.

We pride ourselves in being, what our customers have described as: Prompt, collaborative and efficient. This is how we have been working to deliver catalog antibodies and reagents, worldwide, for over 20 years.

You can count on us, and plan your experiments with the confidence that the reagents will arrive on time.

Here we have collected some testimonials from our customers, regarding product quality, delivery time, technical support and our educational materials.

You are welcome to download the pdf or request a hard copy of this very informative poster on plant Argonautes.

The first poster from the plant epigenetics collection, "Plant small RNAs", can be downloaded or the hard copy can be requested here. 

We always welcome your ideas and suggestions for new educational posters. Do not hesitate to tell us!

Agrisera supported the 4th Brassinosteroid meeting, which took place between the 16th and 18th of August in Ghent, Belgium.  

• "Low-temperature and circadian signals are integrated by the sigma factor SIG5". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to PsbD, PsaC and RbcL.
  
  
• "The pentatricopeptide repeat protein EMP601 functions in maize seed development by affecting RNA editing of mitochondrial transcript ccmC". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to Cyt c and AOX1/2.
  
  
• "Sequence Characteristics and Expression Analysis of the Gene Encoding Sedoheptulose-1,7-Bisphosphatase, an Important Calvin Cycle Enzyme in Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to SBPase.
  
  
• "Light-independent regulation of algal photoprotection by CO2 availability". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to LHCSR1, LHCSR3 and AtpB.
  
  
• "Insights into genomic variations in rice Hsp100 genes across diverse rice accessions". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to HSP101.
  
  
• "Comparing plastid proteomes points towards a higher plastidial redox turnover in vascular tissues than in mesophyll cells". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to RbcL, Lhcb1, GDC-H, IDH, Histone H3, Cat and UGPase.
  
  
• "The plant FYVE domain-containing protein FREE1 associates with microprocessor components to repress miRNA biogenesis". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to HYL1.
  
  
• "Carbon assimilation in upper subtidal macroalgae is determined by an inverse correlation between Rubisco carboxylation efficiency and CO2 concentrating mechanism effectiveness". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies and standard to RbcL.
  
  
• "Poly(ADP-ribose)-binding protein RCD1 is a plant PARylation reader regulated by Photoregulatory Protein Kinases". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to AOX1/2.
  
  
• "Along with cyclic electron flow and non-photochemical quenching, water-water cycle is involved uniquely in alleviating Zn stress-caused photodamage in Melia azedarach". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera protein extraction buffer.
  
  
• "Differential metal sensing and metal-dependent degradation of the broad spectrum root metal transporter IRT1". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to IRT1.
  
  
• "Exogenous hydrogen sulphide alleviates nodule senescence in Glycine max-Sinorhizobium fredii symbiotic system". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to NifH and NodGS.
  
  
• "Maize tubulin folding cofactor B is required for cell division and cell growth through modulating microtubule homeostasis". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to Tubulin alpha chain.
  
  
• "A Phytophthora nucleolar effector, Pi23226, targets to host ribosome biogenesis for inducing necrotrophic cell death". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to L13-1.
  
  
• "Rubredoxin 1 promotes the proper folding of D1 and is not required for heme b559 assembly in Chlamydomonas photosystem II". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to PsbA and PsbD.
  
  
• "CRISPRa-mediated transcriptional activation of the SlPR-1 gene in edited tomato plants". Link to article.
  - With Agrisera antibodies to PR-1.

Agrisera attended the Plant Biology 2023 conference (PB23), in Savannah, GA, USA, held between the 5th and 9th of August. Agrisera was represented by Edith Kalén and Chris Brown.

The conference covered topics such as Developmental biology, Plant hormones, Plant RNA and Environmental stress.

Thank you to everyone who visited Agrisera's booth to discuss antibodies and plant science, and to the conference organizers for yet another successful meeting!

Agrisera's Educational Posers were available free of charge at the conference. In case you did not get a chance to obtain copies, you can request them, free of charge, here.

Hope to see you again for Plant Biology 2024!

Top to bottom: Agrisera's booth at Plant Biology 2023, Fountain at Forsyth Park, Savannah.

• Provided in 2 flexible sample sizes: 1 mg and 10 µl
• Minimum dilution 1: 25 000 1h/RT incubation, which allows for hundreds experiments to be conducted
• High sensitivity
• Minimized background
• Tested on a wide range of plant, algal and bacterial samples
• Used in hundreds of publications
• Lyophilized and delivered in ambient temperature, in an environmentally-friendly way

The flowering process in plants is a crucial stage in their life cycle, where the reproductive structures called flowers are produced and regulated, both by internal genetic factors and external environmental cues. Agrisera's antibody collection for plant developmental biology contains antibodies for proteins involved in plant flowering, such as:

AP2 | Floral homeotic protein APETALA 2
CO | Constans
ELF3 | Early Flowering 3
ELF4 | Early flowering 4 (N-terminal)
FT/TSF | Flowering locus T and twin sister of FT
GI | Gigantea
LFY | Leafy
LUX | Transcription factor LUX
RAD23c | Ubiquitin receptor RAD23c
SOC1 | Suppressor of constans overexpression 1
ZTL (ADO1) | Zeitlupe (Adagio protein 1)


Take an advantage of Agrisera's ongoing promotion, with a 20% discount on developmental biology antibodies. Use discount code Dev20. Valid until September 30th.

• Pdf with slides and useful links
• Recording of the webinar
• Certificate of participation (optional)

Loading control antibodies are used to assess if the protein samples have been loaded equally across the gel, as well as transferred to the membrane. Such controls need to be ubiquitously and constitutively expressed proteins. Commonly used loading controls are the following proteins: actin, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and tubulin. 

Actin and tubulin are highly conserved proteins, which play essential roles in the plant cytoskeleton. Actin is involved in cellular processes, such as cell division, cell share maintenance and intracellular transport. 
Tubulin is a component of micotubules, which are critical for cell division, intracellular transport and maintaining cell structure. 
 
A protein that is chosen to be used as a loading control should remain stable across the applied experimental conditions. Please note that in certain stresses in plants, actin levels may change. 

Take an advantage of Agrisera's ongoing promotion for plant developmental biology antibodies, which are offered at a 20% discount until end of September, and use promotional code Dev20. 

• Polyclonal antibodies to plant actin (most published) AS13 2640 with a wide species range of di and monocotyl plants.
• Monoclonal/recombinant antibodies to plant actin (most published) AS21 4615 with a wide species range of di and monocotyl plants. 
• Polyclonal antibodies to: Tubulin alpha chain | Tubulin beta chain | Tubulin gamma chain  
• Monoclonal antibodies to: Tubulin alpha chain | Tubulin beta chain | Tubulin gamma chain
  
  
  Available for immunolocalization as well as Western blot techniques.

Agrisera supported the Portuguese Spanish Congress of Plant Biology 2023, which took place between the 9th and 12th of July in Braga, Portugal. Congress topics covered diverse fields, like the adaptation of plants, biotic and abiotic stresses, molecular mechanisms that control plant development and function, plant biotechnology and sustainable crop production.

The winners of Agrisera Best Poster Prizes, who will receive a free antibody of their choice from the Agrisera catalog, were:

• Dr. Fernando Evaristo Díaz‐Manzano from Universidad de Castilla‐La Mancha, Toledo, Spain for the poster "Bacillus spp. as a phytopathogenic biocontrol tool against the nematode Meloidogyne spp. in tomato"
  
• PhD student Ana Álvarez from Plant Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Department of Organisms and Systems Biology, University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain and Institute of Biotechnology of Asturias (IUBA), University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, for the poster "Combined effect of heat and drought stress reveal specific responses in different plant species mediated by common and species‐specific mechanisms".

• Dr. Liudmyla Kozeko from M. G. Kholodny, Institute of Botany of NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, currently Nature Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, and
• Dr. Sónia Silva from University of Aveiro, Portugal.

• To study plant organelles such as chloroplasts, mitochondria, peroxisomes, and the endoplasmic reticulum.
  
  
• To study plant cell biology and development by visualizing cell division, differentiation and other cellular processes in real-time and on intact plant tissues.
  
  
• To monitor plant stress response, by fusing GFP to stress-responsive genes, changes in GFP fluorescence in response to various environmental stresses can be monitored.
  
  
• For investigation of plant-microbe (bacteria and fungi) interactions by tagging those microorganisms with GFP.
  
  
• For transgenic plant studies, where GFP is used as a marker in the generation and selection of transgenic plants.
  
  
• For environmental monitoring in ecological studies, GFP has been used as a biomarker to detect and monitor pollution, like algae.
  
  
• In pollination and seed dispersal studies.

Feedback from the participants:

"The feedback from your workshop was quite good our students really enjoyed it and said it was very practical and addressed real questions."

"Thank you very much for the prizes and the information of the workshop. As a starter to the western blot world, the knowledge that has been delivered from the workshop really helped me build up a general understanding of western blot as well as trouble shooting the potential problems. I love the FAQ part of each section as I hold the same questions many times."

"I would like to know whether you have a GFP antibody which works well to detect fusion proteins generated in plants? The GFP we used is eGFP from Aequorea victoria. We tried anti-GFP antibodies from other suppliers, but neither works well for our protein driven by native promoter."

Here is our answer: 

Yes, Agrisera offers both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies to GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein), which detect fusions with plant proteins. Below are links to some of these products.

Anti-Venus polyclonal antibodies
for Western blot. 

Anti-GFP, polyclonal antibodies
for ELISA, Immunofluorescence (IF), Immunoprecipitation (IP), Western blot (WB).

Anti-GFP polyclonal antibodies
for Immunofluorescent localization in plant tissue and Western blot (WB).

Anti-GFP, monoclonal antibodies

Particular focus of the conference was given to plants and climate change, algal biology and bioenergy.

• Agrisera high-titer secondary antibodies, 1: 25 000 1h/RT (AS09 602)
• Agrisera outstanding ECL reagents, with mid picogram detection range (ECL Bright), and extreme low femtogram detection range (ECL SuperBright)

• Lenny Maliham-Yap from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology in Austria for the poster tilted "Probing the role of Ferredoxins in Cyanobacterial Biotransformations", and
• Malene Olsen from the Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Danmark, for the poster tilted "Breeding of Nannochloropsis oceanica for increaased growth rates using random mutagenesis".

Sample: Maize protoplasts fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in 1X PBS pH 7.4 for 1 hour and washed 3 times in 1XPBS buffer

Primary antibodies: Agrisera AS21 4615 actin monoclonal; clone 14H4G8;

Secondary antibodies: Agrisera Donkey anti-Mouse IgG (H&L), DyLight® 488 conjugated AS10 1201

Other reagents: 30% Bovine Serum Albumin solution, Sigma Aldrich Cat # A8577-50ML; Phosphate Buffered Saline 10X, Electron Microscopy Sciences Cat # 19342-10; Imaging spacer, Millipore Sigma Grace Bio-Labs SecureSeal™ imaging spacer Cat # GBL654008

Protocol:

1. Block isolated protoplasts in a blocking buffer (2% BSA in 1x PBS) for 1 h at room temperature.
2. Dilute the primary antibody to 1: 500 in a blocking buffer, mix well, and spin down at 150 x g for 3 min:
3. Spin down protoplasts in a blocking buffer at 150 g for 1 -3 min and remove as much supernatant as possible using a pipette tip with a cut end (wide opening).
4. Resuspend protoplasts in diluted antibody and incubate for 1 h at room temperature.
5. Spin down protoplasts at 150 g for 1 min and remove as much supernatant as possible using a pipette tip with a cut end.
6. Wash protoplasts in a blocking buffer 3 times for 5 minutes each. Spin and resuspend as described in step 5 between each washing step.
7. Dilute the secondary antibody AS10 1201 to 1: 400, mix well, and spin down at 150 x g for 3 min:
8. Incubate protoplasts in diluted antibody for 1 h at room temperature.
9. Repeat the washing steps as described in 5-6.
10. Resuspend a protoplast pellet in a small volume of PBS 1X, pH 7.4.
11. Prepare microscopy slide: attach imaging spacer on top of the slide, peal off top adhesive membrane, add protoplast suspension on to the slide inside the spacer opening, cover with 22x22 mm cover glass No 1.5.
12. Imaging: Zeiss Elyra 7 SIM

Courtesy of Dr. Anastasiya Klebanovych, Dr. Kirk Czymmek, Dr. Kevin Cox, Dr. Blake Meyers, at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, USA

Agrisera supported the 5th International Plant Proteomics Organization (INPPO) conference, held between the 22nd and 25th of May 2023, in Thessaloniki, Greece. The conference focused on basic and applied plant proteomics research. 

The meeting covered the following topics:

• Plant stress under climate crisis
• Developmental proteomics
• Signaling in plant interactions
• Systems biology studies
• Technical/methodological advances in proteomic analysis

The winners of Agrisera Best Poster Prizes, as well as a free antibody of their choice from the Agrisera catalog, were Dr. Jingjing Huang from Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University and VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology,Belgium. and PhD student Siel Goethals from VIB-UGent Plant Systems Biology, Belgium. 

Awaiting your free antibody choices!

• Actin (AS22 4615)
• Clathrin heavy chain 1,2 (AS10 690)
• Histone 3 (AS10 710A), and
• GFP (AS21 4443)

• Donkey anti-mouse IgG (H&L), DyLight® 488-conjugated secondary antibodies (AS10 1261), and
• Donkey anti-Rabbit IgG (H&L), DyLight® 550-conjugated secondary antibody (AS12 1962)

As climate change becomes more noticeable, and affect all life on Earth, research on how plants respond to environmental stress intensifies in many laboratories worldwide. Agrisera antibodies, to key proteins involved in plant stress response, help solve many pressing questions of how plants tackle changes to, and threats in, their environment. New antibodies are added continuously to our collection, which includes antibodies to proteins involved in:

Cold stress | Drought stress | Heat shock | Heavy metals | Hypoxia | Oxidative stress | Pathogen attack | Salt stress | UV radiation | Wounding

Research area

Agrisera supported the 32nd Western Photosynthesis Conference, held between the 28th and 30th of April 2023, in Bodega Biological Marine Laboratory, California, USA.

The meeting covered the following topics:

• Structure-Function Relations in Photosynthesis
• Electron Transfer and Organization of Photosynthetic Complexes
• Applied/Artificial Photosynthesis and Bioenergy
• Global Ecology and Photosynthetic Response to the Dynamic Environment
• Genomes and Evolution of Photosynthesis
• Carbon Fixation and Central Carbon Metabolism

The winners of Agrisera Best Talk Prizes, and a free antibody of their choice from the Agrisera catalog, were: 

For your convenience, chosen Agrisera antibodies can be purchased as sets at very favorabe pricing. The sets also include high-titer matching secondary antibodies, which can be used at 1: 25 000 1h/RT incubation, and Agrisera's ECL reagents, which offer versatile detection.

Agrisera offers the following antibody sets: 

Educational antibody set for photosynthesis | Photosynthesis Tool kit – quantitation (includes standards for quantification of PSI and PSII) | Oxidative stress antibody set | Argonaute antibody set | Rubisco quantitation set (for Western blot or ELISA) | Plant Cell Compartment Antibody Marker Set for 3, 5 or 10 marker antibodies of your choice.

You are always welcome to suggest a new antibody set to us!

Antibodies to Arabidopsis thaliana proteins involved in photosynthesis are a core collection of the Agrisera catalog. This group of products has been developed in collaboration with research laboratories worldwide, for the last 20 years. Agrisera photosynthetic antibodies have the following features:

• Developed to well-conserved peptides, which allows for broad species reactivity
• Can be used at high dilutions, which allows many tests to be conducted
• Validated in independent laboratories, with appropriate sets of endogenous samples (no recombinant protein validation only)
• Available since the year 2000, meaning this collection is prided by an extensive publication record
• For your convenience, some of the antibodies to major photosynthetic proteins, are put together into sets, at discounted pricing. In some cases, these are also accompanied by quantitation standards, to allow estimation of PSI/PSII ratio.

Beside antibodies, Agrisera has also developed Educational Posters on Photosynthesis, that are engaging and packed with up-to-date information. These posters are available for download, and as hard copies that can be requested here. Each poster was created in consultation with leading researchers from the scientific community, and the information in the posters is updated regularly. Specific figures and schemes from the posters are available free of charge for download, to be used in publications and presentations.

Samples: 

1: 13.5 µg of Eucalyptus grandis whole leaf extract clone one (g1)
4: 13.5 µg of Eucalyptus grandis whole leaf extract clone two (g2)
6: 13.5 µg of one clone Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus camaldulensis whole leaf extract (gc)
8: 13.5 µg of one clone Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus tereticornis whole leaf extract (gt)

Presented data courtesy of Ing. Agr. MSc. Matías Nión from Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Facultad de Agronomía, UdelaR. Montevideo, Uruguay.

With millions of antibodies offered worldwide, by hundreds of suppliers, it may be a bit overwhelming, especially for beginners, to choose the correct antibody to answer a specific questions in a research project. Here is a short checklist with what to pay attention to:

Species reactivity – Has the antibody been used to detect the protein from the species we are working with? If not, a request should be sent to the supplier to confirm if the antibody may have so-called predicted reactivity to the target protein. If not, the antibody is not suitable, and false positive results can be produced.  

Validation data – Is validation data available on a product information sheet? For non-essential proteins, validation data should include results obtained with knockdown or knockout mutants. Western blot results showing that an antibody binds to a recombinant protein, are not relevant to the binding in a specific sample, extracted from a specific tissue or organism. Here we explain why.

Application – If the antibody has only been used in Western blot, it may not work in immunoprecipitation or immunolocalization. Each of these techniques requires separate validation data.

Recommended antibody dilution – The lower the dilution, the fewer tests can be conducted using an antibody. Here we explain why. 

Publication record – Being citet in scientific articles definitely confirms the performance of a given antibody. However, as there is no worldwide standard, product numbers are oftentimes not included in the "Material and Method" section. This makes it difficult to identify what antibody has been used to obtain the presented results. How to cite antibodies in scientific publication, is explained in this short video.

Well-validated antibodies to specific cellular compartments are crucial to support data regarding localization studies of novel proteins. Agrisera's Cellular compartment antibody collection contains of marker antibodies to:

Cell wall | Chloroplast | Cytoplasm | Microsomal membranes | Mitochondria | Nuclei | Peroxisomes | Plasma membrane | Vacuole

Agrisera compartment marker antibodies have been used in in a wide range of publications over the last 15 years. For many compartments we offer several antibodies, to proteins of different molecular weight, to match your experimental requirements.

Not certain which compartment marker antibody to choose? Ask Agrisera's techincal staff for an advice.  


Until end of June 2023, Agrisera Antibody Collection for Arabidopsis thaliana is provided with a 10% discount.