Pathogenic bacteria: their detection and differentiation by rapid lipid profiling with pyrolysis mass spectrometry

Abstract Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (Py–MS) can be used to profile methylated fatty acids from bacterial pathogens without a chromatographic step. An in situ thermal hydrolysis and methylation (THM) step incorporated into the Py–MS analysis of whole bacteria reduces the sample preparation time from 60 min to less than 1 min. Detection of four bacterial pathogens with a field-portable aerosol-sampling Py–ion trap MS using FAME profiles from whole bacteria is demonstrated with a total analysis time of less than 10 min/lipid profile.

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