Identification and phylogenetic analysis of Enterococcus isolates using MALDI-TOF MS and VITEK 2

The bacterial genus Enterococcus encompasses 38 species. Two of the most common species are E. faecalis and E. faecium. Recently, however, there has been an increase in clinical reports concerning less prevalent Enterococcus species, such as E. durans, E. hirae, and E. gallinarum. Rapid and accurate laboratory methods are needed to facilitate the identification of all these bacterial species. In the present study, we compared the relative accuracy of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), VITEK 2, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing using 39 enterococci isolates from dairy samples, and compared the resultant phylogenetic trees. We found that MALDI-TOF MS correctly identified all isolates at the species level except for one, whereas the VITEK 2 system, which is an automated identification system using biochemical characteristics of species, misidentified ten isolates. However, phylogenetic trees constructed from both methods showed all isolates in similar positions. Our results clearly showed that MALDI-TOF MS is a reliable and rapid tool for identifying Enterococcus species with greater discriminatory power than the biochemical assay method of VITEK 2.