FASTER IDENTIFICATION OF MYCOBACTERIA USING GAS-LIQUID AND THIN-LAYERCHROMATOGRAPHY

Gas liquid chromatography (GLC) and thin layer chromatography (TLC) an alysis of cell wall content was used for identification of mycobacteri a isolated in primary cultures. GLC permitted determination of the fat ty acid and alcohol profiles of Mycobacterium simiae and Mycobacterium marinum and detection of a peak in Mycobacterium ulcerans formerly de scribed for Mycobacterium malmoense. Using the data obtained to fill s ome of the gaps in the dichotomic trees of Tisdall et al, and Jantzen et al., GLC analysis allowed full identification of 8 of 22 mycobacter ial species after 24 hours. The other 14 species could be divided into four groups on the basis of similar findings on GLC. TLC was used for full identification of three species. The identification results of c onventional methods were concordant with those of GLC and TLC in 161 o f 169 strains (93 %) representing 21 different species. Using primaril y chromatography for analysis of cell wall content, and in the case of some species complementary biochemical tests, the identification proc edure could be shortened to a maximum of three days after primary cult ure.