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Disease Control and Pest Management

Eradication of Potato Viruses X and S from Potato Shoot-Tip Cultures with Ribavirin. R. E. Klein, Graduate research assistant, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523; C. H. Livingston, plant pathologist, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Phytopathology 73:1049-1050. Accepted for publication 11 February 1983. Copyright 1983 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-73-1049.

Ribavirin treatment of cultured potato shoot tips was tested as a means of eradicating potato virus X (PVX) and potato virus S (PVS). Doubly infected shoot tips were cultured on a liquid medium containing 10, 20, or 40 μg/ml ribavirin and a control medium without ribavirin. Cultures were evaluated periodically for relative growth rate, inviability, and the time required for plantlet regeneration. Developed plantlets were assayed for PVX by transmission tests to Gomphrena globosa, and serologically for PVS by the latex agglutination test. Ribavirin proved to be phytotoxic at all concentrations tested, and resulted in the inviability of all cultures treated with 40 μg/ml. Treatment delayed plantlet development by 106 and 127 days for the 10- and 20-μg/ml treatments, respectively. Virus assays indicated that 93 and 87% of the plantlets were free of PVX and PVS, respectively, after treatment with 10 μg/ml. All plantlets developed from the 20-μg/ml treatment were free of both viruses, whereas 10 and 0% of the controls were free of PVX and PVS, respectively.