Differentiation of group I and group II strains of Clostridium botulinum by focal plane array Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

A method was developed for whole-organism fingerprinting of Clostridium botulinum isolates by focal plane array Fourier transform infrared (FPA-FTIR) spectroscopy. A database of 150,000 infrared spectra of 44 strains of C. botulinum was acquired using a FPA-FTIR imaging spectrometer equipped with a 16 x 16 array detector to evaluate the ability of FTIR spectroscopy to differentiate the 44 strains.