The method used for the Taqman assay was as follows: A 20× assay mix
was made using forward primer 5′-GCA ATT CCG ATA GTA ATG GTC A-3′,
reverse primer 5′- CTT GTT TGG CCT TTC ACA AA-3′, and probe /56-FAM/AG TAA ACC CAC ACC CTT TGG TAG CCA /36-TAMSp/ containing 18-μM primers and a 4-μM probe. A 20-μL reaction volume was used using 10 μL of 2× Gene Expression Master Mix (Applied Biosystems) and 1 μL of the 20× assay mix with the remaining volume consisting of input DNA and sterile water. The qPCR reaction profile consisted of one cycle of 10 min at 95 °C followed by 45 cycles of 15 s at 95 °C and 1 min at 60 °C. Reactions were performed in a Stratagene Mx3005P Thermocycler (Agilent Technology). Results were quantified with a standard curve generated from the testing of 10-fold dilutions of a plasmid created to contain the target. Testing of this standard curve indicated that 10 copies of ATCV-1 DNA could be reliably detected in the qPCR reaction. A sample, which contained ≥10 copies of ATCV-1 genomic DNA, was considered to contain ATCV-1 DNA. DNA extracted from related chloroviruses PBCV-1 and CVM-1 (13, 29) and human DNA did not produce products with this assay.