Uptake of labelled tobacco mosaic virus by tobacco protoplasts in the presence of metabolic inhibitors and at low temperature.

In the presence of inhibitors of protein synthesis and energy metabolism, tobacco protoplasts were shown to retain 14C-labelled tobacco mosaic virus (14C-TMV) with the same intensity as in control. At 2 degrees C, the protoplasts retained 14C-TMV at approximately the same rate as at 25 degrees C. In protoplasts inocculated at different temperatures, approximately equal amounts of infectious virus were produced, this being possibly indicative of a non-physiological nature of the first stages of virus penetration into the protoplast.