Evaluation of a reverse line blot assay for genotyping common human rotaviruses

The reverse line blotting method is successful in genotyping common RVA strains in surveillance settings. For genotyping of rare strains, the number of probes on the blot can be expanded or a sequence-based method can be performed as a complementary approach on the samples that are positive in the detection PCR but negative in the reverse line blotting genotyping assay. The complete reverse line blotting protocol takes 8 h to complete for 36 samples, with 3 h hands-on-time. In conclusion, a RVA genotyping method that is accurate, cheap and fast is presented.