Hyphenation of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and cluster analysis has been used to characterise a susceptible Escherichia coli K12 strain and the transconjugants TEM-1, TEM-2, TEM-3, SHV-2, SHV-3, SHV-4. A good discrimination of the susceptible strain from the transconjugants was obtained. Although a limited success was achieved in the differentiation of SHV and TEM phenotypes in general, results obtained with TEM-2 and SHV-3 were convincing. Spectral differences observed are ascribed to the global effects of the conjugation process, particularly their repercussions in the nucleic acids and carbohydrate absorbing regions, rather than to beta-lactamase point-mutations.