{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T19:27:24Z","timestamp":1790710044314,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]],"date-time":"2020-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1595894400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"CHU Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France","award":["-"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["-"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Francisella tularensis is a tier 1 agent causing the zoonosis tularemia. This highly infectious Gram-negative bacterium is occasionally isolated from human samples (especially blood samples) in routine clinical microbiology laboratories. A rapid and accurate method for identifying this pathogen is needed in order to optimize the infected patient\u2019s healthcare management and prevent contamination of the laboratory personnel. MALDI TOF mass spectrometry has become the gold standard for the rapid identification of most human pathogens. However, F. tularensis identification using such technology and commercially available databases is currently considered unreliable. Real-time PCR-based methods for rapid detection and accurate identification of F. tularensis are not available in many laboratories. As a national reference center for tularemia, we developed a MALDI TOF database allowing accurate identification of the species F. tularensis and its differentiation from the closely related neighbor species F. tularensis subsp. novicida and F. philomiragia. The sensitivity and specificity of this database were validated by testing 71 F. tularensis strains and 165 strains from 63 species not belonging to the Francisella genus. We obtained accurate identification at the species level and differentiation of all the tested bacterial strains. In particular, F. tularensis could be accurately differentiated from other small Gram-negative bacilli occasionally isolated from human samples, including species of the HACEK group and Brucella melitensis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms8081143","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,29]],"date-time":"2020-07-29T07:31:45Z","timestamp":1596007905000},"page":"1143","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Optimized MALDI TOF Mass Spectrometry Identification of Francisella tularensis Subsp. holarctica"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Sofiane","family":"Regoui","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre National de R\u00e9f\u00e9rence des Francisella, Institut de Biologie et de Pathologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes, 38043 Grenoble, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5474-7308","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aur\u00e9lie","family":"Hennebique","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre National de R\u00e9f\u00e9rence des Francisella, Institut de Biologie et de Pathologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes, 38043 Grenoble, France"},{"name":"Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble INP, CHU Grenoble Alpes, TIMC-IMAG, 38000 Grenoble, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Girard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre National de R\u00e9f\u00e9rence des Francisella, Institut de Biologie et de Pathologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes, 38043 Grenoble, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sandrine","family":"Boisset","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre National de R\u00e9f\u00e9rence des Francisella, Institut de Biologie et de Pathologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes, 38043 Grenoble, France"},{"name":"Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble INP, CHU Grenoble Alpes, TIMC-IMAG, 38000 Grenoble, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yvan","family":"Caspar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre National de R\u00e9f\u00e9rence des Francisella, Institut de Biologie et de Pathologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes, 38043 Grenoble, France"},{"name":"Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble INP, CHU Grenoble Alpes, TIMC-IMAG, 38000 Grenoble, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4156-3208","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Max","family":"Maurin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre National de R\u00e9f\u00e9rence des Francisella, Institut de Biologie et de Pathologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes, 38043 Grenoble, France"},{"name":"Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble INP, CHU Grenoble Alpes, TIMC-IMAG, 38000 Grenoble, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1016\/S1473-3099(15)00355-2","article-title":"Tularaemia: Clinical aspects in Europe","volume":"16","author":"Maurin","year":"2016","journal-title":"Lancet Infect. 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