Food poisoning caused by toxic mushrooms, such as species in the Amanita genus, occurs frequently around the world. To properly treat these patients, it is important to rapidly and accurately identify the causal species. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-ToF) mass spectrometry is a rapid technique that has been used in medical laboratories for the past three decades to identify bacteria, yeasts, and filamentous fungi. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-Tof MS) is a rapid method used for the past three decades to identify microorganisms. In this study, we created and internally validated a MALDI-Tof MS reference database comprising 15 Amanita species frequently encountered in France, and we challenged this database with 38 Amanita specimens from four French locations, using a free online application for MALDI-ToF spectra identifications. Assessment of the database showed that mass spectra can be obtained by analyzing any portion of a carpophore and that all portions enabled identification of the carpophore at the species level. Most carpophores were correctly identified using our database, with the exception of specimens from the Vaginatae section. Decay tests also demonstrated that decayed portions (like those found in the kitchen garbage can) of Amanita phalloides mushrooms could be properly identified using MALDI-ToF MS. Our findings provide important insight for toxicology laboratories that often rely on DNA sequencing to identify meal leftovers implicated in food poisoning. In future developments, this technique could also be used to detect counterfeit mushrooms by including other genera in the reference database. Lay Summary MALDI-ToF MS is a powerful identification tool for microorganisms. We demonstrate that the technique can be applied to Amanita specimens. This will prevent food intoxications as a rapid and definite identification can be obtained, and it can also be used for food remnants.

中文翻译：

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使用 MALDI-ToF 质谱鉴定蘑菇物种：鹅膏菌属标本的概念分析证明

由有毒蘑菇引起的食物中毒，如鹅膏菌属物种，在世界各地经常发生。为了正确治疗这些患者，快速准确地识别致病物种非常重要。基质辅助激光解吸/电离飞行时间 (MALDI-ToF) 质谱法是一种快速技术，在过去的三十年里一直在医学实验室中用于鉴定细菌、酵母菌和丝状真菌。基质辅助激光解吸电离飞行时间质谱 (MALDI-Tof MS) 是过去三十年来用于鉴定微生物的一种快速方法。在这项研究中，我们创建并在内部验证了一个 MALDI-Tof MS 参考数据库，其中包含在法国经常遇到的 15 种鹅膏菌，我们用来自四个法国地点的 38 种鹅膏菌标本挑战了这个数据库，使用免费的在线应用程序进行 MALDI-ToF 光谱鉴定。对数据库的评估表明，可以通过分析果树的任何部分来获得质谱，并且所有部分都可以在物种水平上识别果树。使用我们的数据库正确识别了大多数车骨，除了阴道部分的标本。腐烂测试还表明，使用 MALDI-ToF MS 可以正确识别鹅膏菌的腐烂部分（如厨房垃圾桶中发现的部分）。我们的研究结果为毒理学实验室提供了重要的见解，这些实验室通常依赖 DNA 测序来识别与食物中毒有关的剩饭剩菜。在未来的发展中，通过将其他属纳入参考数据库，该技术还可用于检测假冒蘑菇。总结 MALDI-ToF MS 是一种强大的微生物鉴定工具。我们证明该技术可以应用于鹅膏菌标本。这将防止食物中毒，因为可以获得快速和明确的识别，并且它也可以用于食物残留物。