Previously, we developed an approach for discriminating
Micrococcus from Staphylococcus using MALDI TOF MS (matrix
assisted laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry),applying the Bruker Biotyper software and reference library (Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany) and standard physiological tests.
MALDI TOF MS for the analysis of bacterial proteins from bacteria
isolated from clinical samples has shown 65.7%e98.8% accuracy for
the identification to the genus level, and 31.8%e94.2% to species
[10]. In MALDI TOF MS, mass profiles are produced from isolated
bacterial colonies. Colonies are sampled from bacterial culture
plates, dried directly on a MALDI plate with the ionization matrix
and then subjected to MALDI TOF MS analysis. The resultant protein
profiles are not attributed to known proteins which complicate
extrapolation of information from one laboratory to another.