Work

Assessment of MALDI-TOF MS for the identification of cultural heritage insect pests

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Heritage threatened by various harmful insects, especially Coleopterans, requires rapid and reliable pest identification for effective management. While traditional methods have limitations, MALDI-TOF MS has recently emerged as a groundbreaking identification tool. Our aim was to assess the effectiveness of MALDI-TOF MS in identifying insect pests of cultural heritage belonging to the Coleoptera order. To succeed identification, adult, larva, and exuviae from eight Coleopteran species were subjected to MALDI-TOF MS after optimization of sample preparation parameters. Reproducible intra-species MS spectra per developmental stage were obtained. The species-specificity of MS spectra for each developmental stage supported the use of MALDI-TOF MS for specimen classification. Spectra from 68 samples including 4 specimens per species and stage were added to our home-made reference arthropod MS database (DB). Among spectra classified as conform, 97.10% (335/345) of the samples were correctly classified with a relevant identification score. The morphological identification of all adult specimens in the reference MS spectra DB was confirmed by molecular biology, and the sequences were deposited in GenBank. This study represents the first demonstration of the effective application of MALDI-TOF MS as a reliable tool for identifying various developmental stages of Coleoptera pests in the cultural heritage of France.

Source: International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

DOI: 10.1016/j.ibiod.2025.106033