title: Novel tools for environmental virology.
abstract: Routine monitoring of relevant environmental viruses is of great importance for public health and quality assessment. Even though cell culture (i.e., viral infectivity assay) is still regarded as the golden standard, use of new strategies based on the molecular techniques significantly increased in the past years. Specific and rapid detection are main advantages of this alternative approach. Furthermore, integration of cell culture or propidium monoazide treatment with nucleic acid amplification allows for the differentiation of infectious particles. Additional recently reported approaches for the detection of viruses include, among others, whole transcriptome amplification and cell culture combined with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Noteworthy is also the fact, that regardless of the selected detection method, sample preparation still remains the major bottleneck.
authors.affiliation: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Bioresources Unit, Konrad-Lorenz Strasse 24, A-3430 Tulln, Austria.
authors.forename: Eva Theres
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Gensberger
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kostić
mesh_terms: D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods; D014773:Virology / Q000379:methods*; D014780:Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification*