Analysis of bacteria by pyrolysis gas chromatography-differential mobility spectrometry and isolation of chemical components with a dependence on growth temperature.

Pyrolysis gas chromatography-differential mobility spectrometry (py-GC-DMS) analysis of E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. warneri and M. luteus, grown at temperatures of 23, 30, and 37 degrees C, provided data sets of ion intensity, retention time, and compensation voltage for principal component analysis. Misaligned chromatographic axes were treated using piecewise alignment, the impact on the degree of class separation (DCS) of clusters was minor. The DCS, however, was improved between 21 to 527% by analysis of variance with Fisher ratios to remove chemical components independent of growth temperature. The temperature dependent components comprised 84% of all peaks in the py-GC-DMS analysis of E. coli and were attributed to the pyrolytic decomposition of proteins rather than lipids, as anticipated. Components were also isolated in other bacteria at differing amounts: 41% for M. luteus, 14% for P. aeruginosa, and 4% for S. warneri, and differing patterns suggested characteristic dependence on temperature of growth for these bacteria. These components are anticipated to have masses from 100 to 200 Da by inference from differential mobility spectra.