title: One-step RT-droplet digital PCR: a breakthrough in the quantification of waterborne RNA viruses.
abstract: Water contamination by viruses has an increasing worldwide impact on human health, and has led to requirements for accurate and quantitative molecular tools. Here, we report the first one-step reverse-transcription droplet digital PCR-based absolute quantification of a RNA virus (rotavirus) in different types of surface water samples. This quantification method proved to be more precise and more tolerant to inhibitory substances than the benchmarking reverse-transcription real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), and needs no standard curve. This new tool is fully amenable for the quantification of viruses in the particularly low concentrations usually found in water samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology and Systems Biology, National Institute of Biology, Vecna pot 111, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Nejc
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rački
authors.forename: Dany
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morisset
authors.forename: Ion
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gutierrez-Aguirre
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ravnikar
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000502:physiology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral