SWM : Smart Water Management

Objectives: Terrorism means an illegal act committed by a person or group with political or social purpose in a planned manner using biological or chemical agents to achieve its purpose or to obtain a symbolic effect. Biological weapons are microorganisms or toxins that are used for the purpose of disabling or killing the enemy troops, and are often referred to as bacterial weapons. 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.
Methods: 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.
Results: In order to detect four kinds of biological weapons, a method based on MIC real-time PCR was established. Primers for detecting B. anthracis were targetted to sspE gene and capC gene. Toxin gene and inv gene in case of Y. pestis, BCSP gene and 16S rRNA gene in case of B. suis, and 16S rRNA gene and fopA gene in case of F. tularensis were targetted for each primers. In the results of performing MIC real-time 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.
Conclusion: 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.