Abstract:
Intentional release of pathogens or biotoxin against humans, plants, or animals is an impending threat all over the world.
Continuous monitoring of environment is required for their detection. These signals can help to distinguish whether the
bioattack has occurred or not. Biosensors utilise biological response including different biochemical reactions, antigen
antibody reactions, electrochemical reactions, aptameric reactions etc. The currently available biosensors have a limit of
detection, specificity and less linearity which affect their sensitivity. Aptamers are single stranded oligonucleotides
binding species which are capable of tightly binding to their distinguishing targets. They are evolved from random oligonucleotides
pools by using different strategies. These are capable of conscientiously distinguishing their target
ligands. They have high sensitivity and a wide range of detection limit. The versatility of nucleic acid based methods
allowed for the design of specific aptamer sequences, typically on the order of 10 to 30 base pairs in length, identifying
the different biothreat agents in the environment. By using different bioinformatics tools we can design RNA aptamers
for toxins of lectin family.
