Characterization and Discrimination of Gram-Positive Bacteria Using Raman Spectroscopy with the Aid of Principal Component Analysis.

Raman scattering and its particular effect, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), are whole-organism fingerprinting spectroscopic techniques that gain more and more popularity in bacterial detection. In this work, two relevant Gram-positive bacteria species, () and () were characterized based on their Raman and SERS spectral fingerprints. The SERS spectra were used to identify the biochemical structures of the bacterial cell wall. Two synthesis methods of the SERS-active nanomaterials were used and the recorded spectra were analyzed. and were successfully discriminated by applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to their specific spectral data.