Principal component analysis of MALDI-TOF MS of whole-cell foodborne pathogenic bacteria.

The rapid and accurate identification of foodborne pathogenic bacteria is of great importance for human health. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) can be used to rapidly and sensitively identify microorganisms but is limited by the expensive protein databases available. In this study, we established a whole-cell method for the identification of foodborne pathogenic bacteria, using MALDI-TOF MS and principal component analysis (PCA), which did not use protein extractions or expensive protein databases.