[Rapid identification of four bacterial species by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy]

In the present study, we applied proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy to distinguish between four bacterial species: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Because of differences in the composition of their cell wall and cytoplasmic constituents, individual bacterial species exhibited characteristic spectra except for K. pneumoniae. Reproducibility was satisfactory in the quantitative studies for chemical shift, intensity of signal and integrated intensity. The turnaround time of the test was only about 40 minutes. 1H NMR could be a new powerful tool for strain identification.