Abstract
Members of the genus Candida, such as C. albicans and C. parapsilosis, are important human pathogens. Other members of this genus, previously believed to carry minimal disease risk, are increasingly recognised as important human pathogens, particularly because of variations in susceptibilities to widely used anti-fungal agents. Thus, rapid and accurate identification of clinical Candida isolates is fundamental in ensuring timely and effective treatments are delivered. Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (REIMS) has previously been shown to provide a high-throughput platform for the rapid and accurate identification of bacterial and fungal isolates. In comparison to commercially available matrix assisted laser desorption ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF), REIMS based methods require no preparative steps nor time-consuming cell extractions. Here, we report on the ability of REIMS-based analysis to rapidly and accurately identify 153 clinical Candida isolates to species level. Both handheld bipolar REIMS and high-throughput REIMS platforms showed high levels of species classification accuracy, with 96% and 100% of isolates classified correctly to species level respectively. In addition, significantly different (FDR corrected P value < 0.05) lipids within the 600 to 1000 m/z mass range were identified, which could act as species-specific biomarkers in complex microbial communities.
Highlights
Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (REIMS) has previously been shown to successfully characterise and identify clinically significant bacteria and yeasts[10,11]
Molecular methods including sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) regions can be used in instances where species delineations are poor
We report on the use of high-throughput REIMS analysis to assign species level taxonomic classification to 153 clinical Candida isolates with perfect accuracy
Summary
Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (REIMS) has previously been shown to successfully characterise and identify clinically significant bacteria and yeasts[10,11]. We report on the use of high-throughput REIMS analysis to assign species level taxonomic classification to 153 clinical Candida isolates with perfect accuracy. A total of 161 Candida isolates were collected and subjected to species level identification using both MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry and DNA sequencing of the ITS region.
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