Home › Microbiology › Characterizing Bacterial Volatiles using Secondary Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (SESI-MS)
Microbiology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Characterizing Bacterial Volatiles using Secondary Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (SESI-MS)

DOI: 10.3791/2664-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Set up and tune a SESI-MS instrument for bacterial volatile analysis
  • ✓ Obtain volatile organic compound fingerprints from bacterial cultures without pretreatment
  • ✓ Interpret and characterize bacterial VOC profiles using mass spectrometry data
Protocol

Secondary electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (SESI-MS) enables the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) without the need for any sample pretreatment. This protocol provides instructions for the rapid (within minutes) characterization of bacterial VOCs using SESI-MS.

Difficulty
intermediate
Total time
~15–30 min per bacterial sample (instrument setup ~20 min; analysis per sample ~5–10 min)
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Review experimental setup and safety considerations

Understand biological experiment design, sample handling requirements, and safety protocols specific to bacterial culture work and mass spectrometry operation.

▶ 02:18
2
Turn on and tune SESI-MS instrument

Power on the secondary electrospray ionization mass spectrometry system and perform tuning procedures to optimize instrument performance for volatile compound detection.

▶ 03:25
3
Obtain volatile fingerprint of bacterial culture

Analyze bacterial culture samples using SESI-MS to generate volatile organic compound fingerprints without requiring sample pretreatment or preparation.

▶ 06:12
4
Interpret bacterial VOC fingerprint results

Analyze and characterize the mass spectrometry data to identify volatile profiles characteristic of the bacterial sample.

▶ 07:35
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