摘要 |
<p>A method for the identification of microorganisms comprises adding to a sample containing an unknown microorganism an emissive agent such as a radioactive amino acid to produce a mix of emissive products that depends on the metabolic mechanism of the microorganism. After incubation, the reaction is arrested and the emissive products are separated, as by electrophoresis on a gel plate. The plate may then be autoradiographed by exposure to a photographic film to produce on the latter a characteristic band pattern functioning as an identifier for the microorganism. Identification can be effected by comparing the identifier for the unknown with a collection of identifiers for known microorganisms to find a match with one of these known identifiers. The comparison may be carried out by scanning the unknown identifier to produce a signal which is compared with signals representing known identifiers stored in a computer. Alternatively, the emissive products, after separation, may be detected by direct scanning to provide an identifier signal for computer processing .</p> |