Identification of Biological Warfare (BW) Threat Agents Using Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Microarrays
Abstract
We developed a bioinformatic method for the identification of unique sequences within the large genomes of bacteria. In support of this contract, we have generated unique sequence and microarray data demonstrating species-level discrimination between Bacillus anthracis, vaccinia virus and Yersinia pestis and strain-level discrimination between Escherichia coli 0157:H7 and the non-virulent K-12 strain. By assaying for the presence of: 1) unique sequences at various levels of the phylogenetic tree, 2) virulence genes, 3) antibiotic resistance genes, 4) virulence plasmid sequences and 5) ribosomal genes, we are in a unique position to develop a novel method for the identification and characterization of microorganisms. The application for this technology crosses many fields of research that are important to the Government including: Environmental testing for bioterrorism by the Department of Homeland Security, Forensic analysis by law enforcement agencies, Battlefield testing by the armed forces, Water quality testing by the EPA, Human diagnostics by the CDC and Agricultural testing by the USDA. In addition to the use of this method to identify known pathogens, we believe that our method will also permit the identification of naturally occurring virulent variants of non-pathogenic organisms, which may constitute an emerging threat to public health and the ability to detect genetically engineered pathogens. By utilizing many different organism-specific sequences for each organism assayed, coupled with statistical analysis methods, false positives simply become a phenomenon of past technology. This research represents a significant leap in technology for the identification and characterization of microorganisms.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA431161
Entities
People
- Paul R. Schaudies