ANALYSIS OF MICROBES BY MALDI MASS SPECTROMETRY

摘要

The invention relates to methods for the mass spectrometric analysis of microbes, in particular to a transfer method of microbes that are required to be identified from agar plates onto mass spectrometric sample supports and their preparation for ionization by matrix-assisted laser desorption (MALDl). The objective of the invention is to significantly shorten the mass spectrometric identification method for diagnostically important microbes. To achieve this, microbes from microcolonies which have grown on the agar plates after a culture time of only six to eight hours are transferred with a high transfer yield onto contact surfaces of suitable size by direct contact and cell disrupted on the contact surface; the released proteins are prepared with matrix material on the contact surface as MALDl samples. The ionization by matrix-assisted laser desorption also takes place on the contact surface. With a preparation that produces a high ion yield in the MALDl process, the critical period from delivery of the samples for analysis until the identification of the microbes can be reduced from around 18 to 24 hours to around only eight hours for most of the clinically relevant microbes.