Differentiation of Campylobacter fetus Subspecies by Proteotyping

is a causative agent of intestinal illness and, occasionally, severe systemic infections and meningitis. currently comprises three subspecies: subspecies subspecies , and subspecies and are primarily associated with mammals whereas is associated with reptiles. To offer an alternative to laborious sequence-based techniques such as multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-ribotyping for this species, the purpose of the study was to develop a typing scheme based on proteotyping. In total, 41 representative strains were analyzed by intact cell mass spectrometry and compared to MLST results. Biomarkers detected in the mass spectrum of subsp. reference strain LMG 6442 (NCTC 10842) as well as corresponding isoforms were associated with the respective amino acid sequences and added to the proteotyping scheme. In combination, the 9 identified biomarkers allow the differentiation of subspecies strains from and subspecies strains. Biomarkers to distinguish between and were not found. The results of the study show the potential of proteotyping to differentiate different subspecies, but also the limitations of the method.