Molecular Typing of Bacteria/Fungi Using MALDI-TOF MS
Silpak Biswas, Frédérique Gouriet and Jean-Marc Rolain
from: MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry in Microbiology (Edited by: Markus Kostrzewa and Sören Schubert). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2016) Pages: 79-92.
Abstract
Traditional microbial typing technologies for the characterization of pathogenic microorganisms and the monitoring of their global spread are often difficult to standardize and lack sufficient ease of use. Timely reporting of strain typing information is essential for the early initiation of infection control measures to prevent a further dissemination of the pathogen and for epidemiological purposes. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has become an important method in clinical microbiology laboratories for identifying and typing bacteria and fungi. With the exception of a few difficult strains, MALDI-TOF MS using standardized procedures allows the accurate identification of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains at the species and sub-species levels. Recent studies have shown that MALDI-TOF MS also has the potential to accurately identify filamentous fungi. MALDI-TOF MS is a powerful tool for species and subspecies classification and rapid identification and typing of pathogenic microbes. Furthermore, the implementation of specific databases of well-known pathogens will likely increase the role of MALDI-TOF MS for typing in the future read more ...
