Pyrolysis gas-liquid chromatography of the genus Bacillus: effect of growth media on pyrochromatogram reproducibility

Abstract

Pyrolysis gas-liquid chromatography was performed on dried Bacillus microorganisms to evaluate the effects of growth media. Six cultures of Bacillus and six lot numbers of Trypticase soy agar (BBL) were used to test the hypothesis that a microorganism grown on various lot numbers of the same media would have the same chromatogram. Also tested was the effect of three different media on chromatogram reproduction using the same six cultures. Results show little or no differences observed between the chromatograms of the individual Bacillus spp. grown on the six lot numbers of Trypticase soy agar. When chromatograms of the three different media were compared, several differences were observed, particularly in the areas most characteristic of individual species. Pryolysis gas-liquid chromatography can be a useful tool for the characterization or identification of the genus Bacillus if the chromatographic and cultural conditions are maintained.

Effect of different growth conditions on the discrimination of three bacteria by pyrolysis gas-liquid chromatography

“…The need for standardization of microbiological growth conditions was recognized in some of the earliest pyrolysis studies (2,18), and this approach has been adopted for pyrolysis mass spectrometry (13) as well as for pyrolysis gasliquid chromatography. Changing the culture medium has always been shown to affect the pyrogram (6,14,17) or mass spectrum (13) drastically, and the use of three different media in i this study confirmed these observations. It is important to stress that growth on different media produces no unique products but changes the peak height ratios of the pyrolysate which are used for the discrimination of microorganisms (9,22).…”

Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography of Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter Species

“…These were all clinical or environmental isolates from St. Thomas's Hospital, and were identified by orthodox methods described previously (King & Phillips 1978 For pyrolysis, all organisms were grown overnight at 37°C or room temperature on bacterial filters (Millipore type HA, pore size 0.45 pm) placed on the surface of 6% lysed Horse Blood Agar Plates (Columbia Blood Agar, Oxoid CM 331) (Oxborrow et al 1976(Oxborrow et al , 1977a.…”

Differential identification of toxic mushrooms by pyrolysis-GLC coupling

“…Such mixtures are characteristic of each substance and can be analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC); the pyrogram thus obtained is the fingerprint of the substance (Reiner and Hicks, 1972). This method has been used to identify various Penicillium (Thorburn Burns et al, 1976) and Bacillus (Oxborrow et al, 1977) species.…”