cis-Diamminedichloroplatinum(II)(CDDP), an antitumor drug, did not generate crosslink between bluetongue virus (BTV) capsid protein at moderate concentration. Cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation study revealed that protein-RNA crosslink was not detectable in CDDP treated BTV. CDDP treated BTV ds RNA showed remarkable change in the migration pattern in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These results suggest that the reduction of BTV core associated transcriptase activity is most likely by the CDDP adduction to the genomic ds RNA rather than by the protein-RNA crosslink and/or protein-protein crosslink.