TY - JOUR
T1 - Discrimination and characterization of environmental strains of Escherichia coli by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS)
AU - Siegrist, Thomas J.
AU - Anderson, Phillip D.
AU - Huen, Wing H.
AU - Kleinheinz, Gregory T.
AU - McDermott, Colleen M.
AU - Sandrin, Todd R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Carissa Schubert for assistance in obtaining preliminary mass spectra of isolates. Support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation (Award Nos. 0321545 and 0452825), the UW Oshkosh Faculty-Undergraduate and Graduate Student Collaborative Grant programs, and the UW Oshkosh Faculty Development Program (Award No. FDR230 to Wing Huen).
PY - 2007/3
Y1 - 2007/3
N2 - A rapid and reliable bacterial source tracking (BST) method is essential to counter risks to human health posed by fecal contamination of surface waters. Genetic fingerprinting methods, such as repetitive sequence based-PCR (rep-PCR), have shown promise as BST tools but are time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this work, we investigate the ability of MALDI-TOF-MS to characterize and discriminate between closely related environmental strains of Escherichia coli and to classify them according to their respective sources. We compared the performance of a rapid MALDI-TOF-MS-based method to a commonly used rep-PCR-based method that employs the BOX-A1R primer. Among the criteria evaluated were repeatability and the ability of each method to group E. coli isolates according to their respective sources. Our data suggest that the MALDI-TOF-MS-based approach has a lower repeatability level compared to rep-PCR but offers an improved ability to correctly assign E. coli isolates to specific source groups. In addition, we have identified five biomarkers that appear conserved among avian species. We conclude that MALDI-TOF-MS may represent a promising, novel and rapid approach to addressing the problem of fecal contamination of surface waters and warrants further investigation.
AB - A rapid and reliable bacterial source tracking (BST) method is essential to counter risks to human health posed by fecal contamination of surface waters. Genetic fingerprinting methods, such as repetitive sequence based-PCR (rep-PCR), have shown promise as BST tools but are time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this work, we investigate the ability of MALDI-TOF-MS to characterize and discriminate between closely related environmental strains of Escherichia coli and to classify them according to their respective sources. We compared the performance of a rapid MALDI-TOF-MS-based method to a commonly used rep-PCR-based method that employs the BOX-A1R primer. Among the criteria evaluated were repeatability and the ability of each method to group E. coli isolates according to their respective sources. Our data suggest that the MALDI-TOF-MS-based approach has a lower repeatability level compared to rep-PCR but offers an improved ability to correctly assign E. coli isolates to specific source groups. In addition, we have identified five biomarkers that appear conserved among avian species. We conclude that MALDI-TOF-MS may represent a promising, novel and rapid approach to addressing the problem of fecal contamination of surface waters and warrants further investigation.
KW - Bacterial source tracking (BST)
KW - E. coli
KW - MALDI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33847419634&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33847419634&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.mimet.2006.10.012
DO - 10.1016/j.mimet.2006.10.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 17184860
AN - SCOPUS:33847419634
SN - 0167-7012
VL - 68
SP - 554
EP - 562
JO - Journal of Microbiological Methods
JF - Journal of Microbiological Methods
IS - 3
ER -