PNNL

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to infer the medium in which Bacillus subtilis spores were grown based on elemental signatures of the spores. Triplicate culture replicates grown in each of four different media were analyzed to obtain ToF-SIMS signatures comprised of 16 elemental intensities. The signatures were analyzed using ANOVA and principal components analysis (PCA). Confusion matrices constructed using nearest neighbor classification of the PCA scores confirmed the predictive utility of ToF-SIMS elemental signatures in identifying sporulation media. Application of this method will be of use in microbial forensics, and may also prove useful in the areas of food microbiology and astrobiology.