Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry for identification of Clostridium species isolated from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify different Clostridium spp. isolated from currency notes from the Ha’il region of Saudi Arabia in September 2014 using MALDI–TOF-MS. Clostridium spp. were identified by Bruker MALDI–TOF-MS and compared with VITEK 2. The confirmation of the presence of different Clostridium spp. was performed by determining the sequence of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. In this study, 144 Clostridium spp. were isolated. Among these specimens, MALDI–TOF-MS could identify 88.8% (128/144) of the isolates to the species level and 92.3% (133/144) to the genus level, whereas, VITEK 2 identified 77.7% of the (112/144) isolates. The correct identification of the 144 isolates was performed by sequence analysis of the 500 bp 16S rRNA gene. The most common Clostridium spp. identified were Clostridium perfringens (67.36%), Clostridium subterminale (14.58%), Clostridium sordellii (9%) and Clostridium sporogenes (9%). The results of this study demonstrate that MALDI–TOF-MS is a rapid, accurate and user friendly technique for the identification of Clostridium spp. Additionally, MALDI–TOF-MS has advantages over VITEK 2 in the identification of fastidious micro-organisms, such as Clostridium spp. Incorporating this technique into routine microbiology would lead to more successful and rapid identification of pathogenic and difficult to identify micro-organisms.

Identification of Clostridium spp. derived from a sheep and cattle slaughterhouse by matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and 16S rDNA sequencing

“…isolated from sheep and cattle carcasses at different stages of slaughter in an abattoir using MALDI-TOF MS against 16S rDNA sequencing. 16S rDNA sequencing is a reliable method for accurate identification of anaerobic bacteria, including Clostridium species, but this technique remains difficult to implement in routine microbiology laboratories (Chean et al 2014;AlMogbel 2016). The MALDI-TOF MS method supplements the phenotypic methods for fast, cost-effective, robust, and reliable identification in the first step of characterization of the cultivable microbial community (AlMogbel 2016; Nacef et al 2016).…”

Challenging the problematic detection of clostridial isolates causing late-blowing defect with MALDI-TOF MS

“…Alternatives to the conventional method used to detect clostridial isolates are PCR-based molecular techniques (Kaya et al 2022) and proteomics-based methods like Matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) (Burtscher et al 2020;Podrzaj et al 2020). The advantages and performance of MALDI-TOF MS over existing methods have been highlighted in several studies with MALDI-TOF MS have shown that the system is high-speed, requires very few samples, and applies to the identification of many microorganisms, including anaerobes (Chean et al 2014;Hsu and Burnham 2014;Almogbel 2016;Schaumann et al 2018).…”