Identification of Malassezia species by MALDI-TOF MS after expansion of database

The taxonomy of Malassezia species is evolving with introduction of molecular techniques, and difficulty is faced to identify the species by phenotypic methods. Among 15 known Malassezia species, the present Bruker database could identify only 2 species. The present study was aimed to improve Matrix -assisted laser desorption ionization time-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) based identification of Malassezia species. A total of 88 isolates (DNA sequencing confirmed) for database preparation and, for the validation of database, 190 isolates confirmed by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) were used. The main spectrum profile dendrogram showed the sufficient discrimination between all the species by MALDI-TOF MS. The updated Malassezia database could identify 94.7% and 5.3% strains to the species and genus level, respectively. MALDI-TOF MS is a significantly reliable technique, and results were comparable with PCR-RFLP with kappa value 0.9. In conclusion, MALDI-TOF MS could be a possible alternative tool to other molecular methods for rapid and accurate identification of Malassezia species.