International Journal of Medical Advances and Discoveries

International Journal of Medical Advances and Discoveries ISSN 2756-3812 Vol. 15 (1), pp. 001-004, January, 2024. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A Comparative Study of MALDI-TOF MS and Conventional Culture Methods for Bacterial Species Identification

Iroha Ifeanyichukwu Romanus¹*, Ayogu Thomas Eze², Oji Anthonia Egwu¹, Afiukwa Felicitas Ngozi¹ and Nwuzo Agabus Chidiebube¹

¹Department of Applied Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences Ebonyi State University, P.M.B. 053, Abakaliki,
Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
²Department of Food Technology, Institute of Management and technology, Enugu, P.M.B. 01079, Enugu State, Nigeria.

Accepted 28 November, 2023

Abstract

Identification of bacteria to species level is based on culturing in different media which takes 48 to 72 h from the time of isolation. Matrix-assisted desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a new technology in bacteria identification. We evaluated MALDI-TOF-MS system with 101 consecutively isolated bacteria colonies under routine laboratory conditions by comparing its identification efficiency with conventional culturing and biochemical tests. The MALDI-TOF MS identified bacteria colonies as Escherichia coli 44(43.5%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 56(55.4%) and Stenotrophomonas maltophila 1(1.4%) while cultural and biochemical method identified bacteria colonies as E. coli 43(42.5%), K. pneumoniae 56(55.4%) and failed to identify one bacteria colony which was identified as S. maltophila by MALDI-TOF MS. Our data suggests that although both methods are good for bacteria identification, MALDI-TOF MS is better than conventional culturing and biochemical tests because of its short turn around time with no loss of accuracy.

Key words: Bacteria identification, MALDI- TOF MS, culture, biochemical test, bacteria colony.