SWM : Smart Water Management

Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Brucells suis, and Francisella tularensis are four major biological weapons. The dissemination of these agents is a severe public health concern. In this study, therefore, species-specific primers for these four bacteria were designed based on the target genes presented in the protocols from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and specificities in each primer were verified. The design of these target primers was purposed to implement different applications, such as real-time PCR, conventional PCR, multiplex PCR, and etc., according to differences in amplicon sizes. In the results of performing a multiplex PCR by fabricating the target specific primer for each bacteria as a 4X primer mixture, species-specific amplifications were verified and its detection limits were determined by about 0.1 ~ 10 ng genomic DNA/reaction. Further study is needed to optimize the method of verifying the contamination of these four bacteria with the fastest time at a site through using a simple mobile detection device.