DIRECT ANALYSIS OF BACTERIAL GLYCERIDES BY CURIE-POINT PYROLYSIS MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry with pattern recognition has been used to characterize ten bacteria based on their glyceride distributions. Peaks have been identified which allow differentiation of triglycerides and phospholipids. Results are also presented which demonstrated that the phospholipids are thermally desorbed intact. Pattern recognition techniques showed that each genus had a characteristic distribution of glycerides. The results from this study arc compared to a previously published Py-GC/MS study of glyceride distributions in bacteria. This comparison shows that direct Py-MS has similar capabilities for distinguishing bacteria based on glyceride distributions as thc Py-GC/MS methods.