Gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of cellular fatty acids for identification of gram-negative anaerobic bacilli

A commercially available, computer-assisted microbial identification system (MIS) employs gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of cellular fatty acids for bacterial identification. MIS was compared with conventional identification systems. Of 225 gram-negative anaerobes tested, MIS identified 72.4% of the strains to the species level, 88.9% to the appropriate group, and 93.3% to the correct genus.