Identification of clinical isolates from the genus Staphylococcus by MALDI-TOF MS and conventional phenothypic methods
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Staphylococci in general and S.aureus subsp. aureus in particular are very important human pathogens. More than 400 strains isolated from clinical specimens were identified by MALDI-TOF MS (Microflex; Bruker-Daltonics, Germany) and conventional phenotypic methods (API Staph; STAPHYtest 24; conventional tests). Type strains of 53 staphylococccal species and subspecies were also included in the study. MALDI-TOF MS successfully identified 85% of the clinical isolates to the species level (score >1.900), but not to the subspecies level. The isolates were assigned to 26 species. The MALDI-TOF MS and phenotypic results were concordant in more than 99%. Thirty-one clinical isolates were identified by MALDI-TOF MS as belonging to the complex S. intermedius/S. pseudintermedius. All but one strain of this complex were assigned to S. pseudintermedius by rep-PCR fingerprinting using the (GTG)5 primer. The MALDI-TOF mass spectra-based dendrogram constructed from the data on 53 type strains and data retrieved from the Bruker-Daltonics database revealed that the strains of the same species clustered together and certain branches showed a sufficiently good concordance with the Staphylococcus species groups defined by the phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA sequences. Our results indicate that MALDI-TOF MS is a very effective tool for the identification of staphylococci from clinical specimens that has the advantage of being simple, swift, and reliable and requiring low material cost. |
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