Serotaxonomy (immunotaxonomy)

Systematic serology, or serotaxonomy (also called immunotaxonomy), originated towards the end of the 20th century alongside the discovery of serological reactions and the growth of immunology as a discipline. It classifies very similar plants using differences in the PROTEINS they contain - Smith (1976) defined it as 'the study of the origins and properties of antisera.' It determines the degree of similarity between species, genera and families by comparing the reactions of ANTIGENS from various plant taxa against ANTIBODIES raised against the antigen of a given taxon. Example: the reassignment of *Phaseolus aure …