A competitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the rapid quantitation of the glycosylated and deglycosylated forms of the monomeric soluble extensin precursor subunits Pl and P2. A log-linear response range for each kind of precursor in the competition curve was between 0.01 and 100 nanograms per milliliter.Extensin is a plant cell wall-bound hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein. Two different soluble forms of extensin were recently isolated from salt eluates of intact tomato cell suspension cultures (12). These HRGPs3 were shown to be different in amino acid composition. These two soluble extensins, P1 and P2, are monomeric precursors to insoluble network extensin. Although the evidence is correlative, extensin may function as part of the resistance mechanism against certain biological stresses. Extensin accumulates in cell walls in response to stress stimuli such as wounding (14), pathogen attack (2,3,8,9), and heat shock (13), but the precise role of this response is not known. Key to understanding the role ofextensin in these responses is the ability to quantitate the amounts of extensin that accumulates in response to stress. Satisfactory evidence has not been provided to date, partly because ofthe inability to quantitate soluble extensin accurately in plant cell walls.Current techniques for quantitation of the accumulation of HRGPs in cell walls involve spectrophotometric measurement of hydroxyproline released after acid hydrolysis (7). Such methods are, however, slow, insensitive, and nonspecific. Immunological methods, such as ELISA are rapid and highly sensitive (11). We report here the development of an indirect competitive ELISA for the quantitation of extensin precursors. This type of ELISA has been demonstrated to be useful and sensitive in the assay of important biological molecules (10). Deglycosylation of P1 and P2 involved HF solvolysis of the saccharide component using anhydrous HF with 10% methanol as the scavenger for 1 h at 0°C (12).Rabbit Immunization. P1, P2, and deglycosylated P1 and P2 (DPl and DP2) were used as immunogens. Initial injection of all four immunogens employed a modification of the multiple site method of Vaitukaitis et al. (15). For the two glycosylated immunogens, P1 and P2, 0.5 mg precursor in 1.0 ml of 0.9% saline was emulsified with 2.0 ml Freund's complete adjuvant. For the two deglycosylated immunogens DPl and DP2, 0.5 mg precursor in 0.5 ml of 0.9% saline was emulsified with 1.5 ml Freund's complete adjuvant. With all four precursors, the preparation was injected intradermally into four sites on the back of a New Zealand white doe rabbit. Subsequent injections were made at 6 week intervals using Freund's incomplete adjuvant emulsified in the same ratios and concentrations as described above, but at one-half the volume. Rabbits were bled through the marginal ear vein and sera purified by three (NH4)2, S04 (35% saturated) precipitations (4) followed by dialysis overnight at 4°C against 0.1 M phosphate buffer in 0.15 M saline (...