The study examined whether the practice of incorporating either tetrazolium red or tetrazolium violet dye into plaque assay medium deleteriously influences plaque assay titers. Representative members of six different virus families were studied: Cystoviridae (Phi6), Leviviridae (MS2), Microviridae (PhiX174), Myoviridae (T2), Podoviridae (P22), and Siphoviridae (Denver, T1, and VD13). Each of the members of the Podoviridae and Siphoviridae families appeared to be suppressed by either one or both dyes at a 300-micrograms/ml concentration. The chosen representatives of the other bacteriophage families were not suppressed by either dye at a 300-micrograms/ml concentration. Subsequent trials revealed no suppression of Podoviridae or Siphoviridae plaque assay titers when members of these virus families were tested with the same two dyes at the lower concentrations of 150 and 50 micrograms/ml. Interestingly, the bacteriohage families whose members were affected by the dyes have additional commonality in that they are the two bacteriophage families whose members were affected by the dyes have additional commonality in that they are the two bacteriophage families whose members possess both double-stranded DNA genomes and noncontractile tails. (Copyright (c) 1994, American Society for Microbiology.)