Rapid endophytic bacterial detection by enzyme incorporated MALDI MS

Abstract

In this paper, we have attempted the use of MALDI-MS for the detection of bacteria from complex real world samples such as the root nodules of plants. We have employed lysozyme as the enzyme biosensor to enrich the bacterial molecular signatures from endophytic bacteria during the MALDI-MS analysis. We used the root nodules of Arachis hypogaea, L. as an endophytic model system to prove the enrichment of the endophytic bacterial signals for the rapid and direct identification of the endophytic bacteria. We have been able to demonstrate the functionality of lysozyme as an enzyme biosensor during the mass spectrometric analysis of complex plant tissues such as the root nodules, leading to a culture-free detection of the endophytic bacteria. We also report the direct identification of the specific dominant endophytic isolate using MALDI-MS combined with Biotyper software analysis and validation.