Ribavirin, Electric Current, and Shoot-tip Culture to Eliminate Several Potato Viruses

To eradicate several viruses such as PVX, PVY, and PLRV which often cause considerable damages to the growth and yields of potatoes, several stems including shoot tips were excised from the potato plants grown for 50 days and electric shock was treated. Shoot tips excised from electric-shocked stems were transferred into the medium supplemented with antiviral compound, ribavirin to examine the combinatorial effect. When treated only with 20 mg/L ribavirin, PVX concentration in the regenerated plant-lets was slowly decreased as repeating sub-culture and finally, it took 32 weeks to reach completely PVX-free stock. With an electric shock treatment (10 mA electric current), all the replicates became free from PVY. However, PLRV was not completely eradicated from 94P70-4 and 93P29-3 lines even by treating with 10 mA electric shock. In this case, both electric shock and antiviral compound treatments in axillary buds from the stem segment were successful in eradicating viral contamination.