VIEW ARTICLE

Disease Control and Pest Management

Effects of Animal Antiviral Chemicals on Plant Viruses. W. O. Dawson, Associate professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside 92521; Phytopathology 74:211-213. Accepted for publication 2 September 1983. Copyright 1984 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-74-211.

Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and cowpea chlorotic mottle virus were effectively inhibited by 14 of 27 chemicals reported to be active against several animal viruses. Adenine arabinoside, ribavirin, guanidine, cordycepin, tubercidin, (s)9-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)adenine, distamycin A, 2,3-bis-(acetyl mercaptomethyl)-quinoxaline, cycloleucine, 3-deazauridine, 2,3-diaminopyridine, 8-azaguanine, 2-thiouracil, and 5-azacytidine were inhibitory. The ability of such a large proportion of the chemicals tested to inhibit both plant viruses argues for the possibility of a wide-spectrum antiviral compound for plant viruses. The selectivity of these compounds, measured as the concentration required to inhibit virus multiplication in leaf disks compared to the concentration that allowed growth and differentiation of tobacco tissue cultures, was low for most. Adenine arabinoside, ribavirin, (s)9-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)adenine, and 5-azacytidine, however, allowed callus growth at concentrations greater than that required to inhibit virus multiplication in leaf disks, but these concentrations did not induce TMV-infected tobacco callus to grow free of TMV. Some of the tobacco callus cultures that grew on noninhibitory concentrations of cycloleucine or 3-deazauridine, however, became free of TMV.