A proteomic approach for rapid identification of Weissella species isolated from Korean fermented foods on MALDI-TOF MS supplemented with an in-house database

Weissella are obligate heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria belonging to the Leuconostocaceae family. Some Weissella can be found in salted and fermented foods, such as kimchi and jeotgal, and plays an important role in the fermentation process. In the present study, for the first time, a rapid and accurate identification method for Weissella species from kimchi and jeotgal was developed based on MALDI-TOF MS, supplemented with an in-house database. Of the 135 Weissella spectra aligned with the MALDI bioTyper database, 56 isolates (41.5%) yielded no reliable identification results with low log scores (