Once a plant cell is infected with TMV, the active virus is nothing more than a strand of RNA. There is no separate, complex organism, like a bacterium or worm. It's just an RNA strand inside a plant cell.
If you manage, by a systemic treatment, to denature the RNA, I would imagine that you would also be denaturing all the RNA and DNA in any plant cells subjected to the treatment. In general, chemicals that effectively kill viruses (outside its host) are likely to kill the host, if used systemically.
Most ag extension services suggest a crop rotation away from a TMV susceptible crop for 2 years. Kiln temperatures (125ºF) are likely to kill TMV within cured leaf. Most studies have shown that TMV is not transmitted in clean tobacco seed.
Chlorine kills by halogenating organic compounds. This includes protozoa and bacteria and viruses. But the effective dose needs to be high enough to also halogenate all of the organic compounds within the material surrounding the organism. The result is a lot of organo-chlorines, many of which may be toxic to humans.
Alcohol (ethanol or isopropanol) doesn't really kill much of anything, even those alcohol wipes that hospitals use before puncturing your skin with a needle. It just doesn't work as an effective antiseptic on an organic surface (like your skin). It is, though, an effective cleansing agent. So, wiping an instrument with an alcohol swab serves to cleanse it, but not disinfect it. Treating dirt with alcohol? I'm not sure what that would do.
I commend the thought of an experiment. Unfortunately, the number of trials within each group would need to be greater (I would guess about 6 of each group) to end up with results that are more convincing than random variation. Otherwise, it's like buying one Chevy, one Ford, and one Mercedes, to determine which manufacturer is better.
Bob
