A recent study has concluded that Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) can be developed into a fast and reliable identification method for genetically highly related species when potential taxonomic and genetic inconsistencies are taken into account when generating a reference library.
The results showed that 99.3 per cent of the 152 tested were identified at the species level, and suis biovar 1 and 2 were identified at the level of their biovar. This demonstrates that for Brucella, even minimal genomic differences between these serovars translate to specific proteomic differences.
By constructing a Brucella reference library based on multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) data, an accurate identification of Brucella species using MALDI-TOF-MS was achievable. By comparing MS-spectra from Brucella species against a custom-made MALDI-TOF-MS reference library, MALDI-TOF-MS could be used as a rapid identification method for Brucella species.
The study cited MALDI-TOF-MS as a rapid, cost-effective, accurate and sustainable for the high-throughput identification of bacteria.