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Submitted to: Journal of Microbiological Methods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 3/24/2006 Publication Date: 8/25/2006 Citation: Buyer, J.S. 2006. Rapid and sensitive fame analysis of bacteria by cold trap injection gas chromatography. Journal of Microbiological Methods. 67:187-190. Interpretive Summary: Many problems in microbiology require that bacteria be identified. For example, bacteria that suppress plant disease need to be thoroughly characterized before they can be released into the environment. Bacteria have to be identified in the clinical laboratory in order to treat disease. One of the most powerful and widely used methods for identification of bacteria is by gas chromatographic analysis of the fatty acids that are present in the lipids of bacterial membranes. The Microbial Identification System (Microbial ID, Inc., Newark, DE) is the only commercially available system for this purpose. We have developed a modified method that reduces the biomass necessary to get accurate identifications from 20 mg to 1-2 mg. This may be useful for slow-growing bacteria, bacteria that never grow to high density, and for detection of bioterrorism agents. Technical Abstract: Fatty acid analysis is commonly used to identify bacteria. A cold trap is used to focus peaks at the head of the GC column. When combined with a rapid sample processing method that uses smaller volumes of solvents, it becomes possible to correctly identify bacteria from 1-2 mg of biomass. |
