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Pyrolysis GC/MS Profiling of Chemical Markers for Microorganisms

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Analytical Microbiology Methods

Abstract

Analytical pyrolysis is an attractive tool for the rapid lassification, identification, or structural characterization of icroorganisms. Pyrolysis-based analytical methods thermally fragment amples in the absence of oxygen to produce volatile components (pyrolyzates) hat can then be separated on-line by capillary GC with flame ionization etection (Py-GC-FID), separated by GC and detected by MS (Py-GC/MS), or etected directly by MS (Py-MS). The success of analytical pyrolysis for icrobial characterization is ultimately based on detecting chemical markers - compounds that are unique or prominent in a group of organisms and that an be used to identify those organisms (see Chapter 1). The mere presence f a particular substance In the pyrolysis product mixture from a icroorganism does not qualify it as a chemical marker; discriminating nformation that is relevant to taxonomic differences must be provided. This hapter describes an approach for the validation of pyrolysis products as hemical markers and their chemical identification. Instrumental aspects and ackground of analytical pyrolysis have been discussed in Chapter 2 as well s by other sources.1,2 Several reviews on analytical pyrolysis in microbial nalysis have also been published.3–5 The use of short capillary columns ombined with ion trap mass spectrometry for the rapid characterization of icrobes is described in Chapter 12.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Stephen L. Morgan, Bruce E. Watt & Kimio Ueda

  2. Department of Microbiology & Immunology School of Medicine, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Alvin Fox

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  1. Stephen L. Morgan
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  2. Bruce E. Watt
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  3. Kimio Ueda
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  4. Alvin Fox
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

    Alvin Fox  & Stephen L. Morgan  & 

  2. University of Lund, Lund, Sweden

    Lennart Larsson  & Göran Odham  & 

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Morgan, S.L., Watt, B.E., Ueda, K., Fox, A. (1990). Pyrolysis GC/MS Profiling of Chemical Markers for Microorganisms. In: Fox, A., Morgan, S.L., Larsson, L., Odham, G. (eds) Analytical Microbiology Methods. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3564-9_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3564-9_12

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