| Abstract The aim of this study was to identify different Clostridium spp. isolated from currency notes from the Ha’il region of Saudi Arabia in September 2014 using MALDI–TOF-MS. Clostridium spp. were identified by Bruker MALDI–TOF-MS and compared with VITEK 2. The confirmation of the presence of different Clostridium spp. was performed by determining the sequence of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. In this study, 144 Clostridium spp. were isolated. Among these specimens, MALDI–TOF-MS could identify 88.8% (128/144) of the isolates to the species level and 92.3% (133/144) to the genus level, whereas, VITEK 2 identified 77.7% of the (112/144) isolates. The correct identification of the 144 isolates was performed by sequence analysis of the 500 bp 16S rRNA gene.... |
