Discrimination of foodborne pathogenic bacteria using synchrotron FTIR microspectroscopy

Abstract

Traditional Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been recognized as a valuable method to characterize and classify kinds of microorganisms. In this study, combined with multivariate statistical analysis, synchrotron radiation-based FTIR (SR-FTIR) microspectroscopy was applied to identify and discriminate ten foodborne bacterial strains. Our results show that the whole spectra (3000–900 cm -1 ) and three subdivided spectral regions (3000–2800, 1800–1500 and 1200–900 cm -1 , representing lipids, proteins and polysaccharides, respectively) can be used to type bacteria. Either the whole spectra or the three subdivided spectra are good for discriminating the bacteria at levels of species and subspecies, but the whole spectra should be given preference at the genus level. The findings demonstrate that SR-FTIR microspectroscopy is a powerful tool to identify and classify foodborne pathogenic bacteria at the genus, species and subspecies level.