The possibility to rapidly identify bacteria is required in many different fields. Due to rapid
progress in the development of mass spectrometry devices during the last few years,
identification by means of mass spectrometry has become a very powerful and usable tool.
These methods offer fast analysis of biomarker ions, providing reliable information on
bacteria characterization even at the sub-species level. Therefore, these approaches have
been successfully established as routine methods, together with classical biochemical tests …

Combined pyrolysis-mass spectrometry has been applied to the characterization of certain
pathogenic bacterial species. Direct insertion of lyophilized bacteria into the ion source of a
mass spectrometer at 300 to 350 C produces characteristic mass spectra. The spectra
obtained from gram-negative bacteria are shown to result from pyrolysis products of
phospholipids and ubiquinones. Current methods in diagnostic microbiology for identifi-
cation of a microorganism are based uponthe recognition of a pattern of staining …