Characterization of Carnobacterium species by pyrolysis mass spectrometry

L.N. MANCHESTER, A . TOOLE AND R . GOODACRE. 1995. Forty-eight strains of Carnobacter ium were examined by pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PyMS). T h e effects of culture age and reproducibility over a 4 week period were also examined. T h e results were analysed by multivariate statistical techniques and compared with those from a previous numerical taxonomic study based on morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics and with studies which used DNA-DNA and 16s rRNA sequence homologies. Taxonomic correlations were observed between the PyMS data and the previous studies. Culture age was observed to have little effect on the mass spectra obtained and the reproducibility study indicated that there was very little variation over the 4 week period. I t was concluded that PyMS provides a reliable method for studying carnobacterial classification and provides a rapid way for clarifying and refining subgeneric relationships within the genus Carnobacter ium. Further work may also show that it offers a potentially very rapid and accurate method for the identification of Carnobacter ium.