Mass Spectrometry: An Undeniable Tool in Current Microbiology

Dear Colleagues,

Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical tool in chemistry with a long history of constant technological progress regarding the mass resolution, accuracy, and acquisition speed of instruments and the software that makes them operational. In the last two decades, MS has also become indispensable in the study of microorganisms. Among the MS techniques, MALDI-TOF MS offers a reliable and cost-effective method for microbial identification. Fingerprints obtained from ribosomal proteins and other small molecules, in the range of 2–20 kDa, are nowadays used to identify microorganisms in many laboratories all around the world.

Moreover, methods based on LC–MS, GC–MS, and other coupled MS techniques have been developed, and contribute decisively towards the expansion of microbial proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics knowledge. Developments have also been observed in the discovery of new microbial biomarkers which have allowed new promising applications in health and life sciences.

Overall, MS generates an unprecedented large volume of data in microbiology that has fostered the development of bioinformatics tools and their associated databases. However, several challenges need to be investigated and performed, such as common protocols and databases for the exchange of information under standardized quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC).

Taking all this into consideration, we are interested in receiving papers which update on the progress made in the last five years, not only in solving problems in the QA/QC of microbial identification using MS techniques but also new applications of MS towards generating information about microbial traits and the deployment of data. We encourage authors to submit original research, opinion pieces, and reviews to this Special Issue and demonstrate that MS in current microbiology is an essential tool.

Prof. Dr. Nelson Lima
Prof. Dr. Cledir Santos
Guest Editors

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