Molecular evolution spectrometry

The progress of the mass spectrometry of organozinc compounds has paralleled the development of new MS techniques. The first complexes studied by MS should have been volatile. However, the development of ionization methods such as fast atom bombardment, electrospray ionization and laser ionization has allowed the analysis of non-volatile, high molecular weight and ionic complexes. The evolution of methods of studying unimolecular... 

The topic of nucleic acid analysis by MALDI-TOF MS has recently been reviewed elsewhere (10,11). The reader can refer to those reviews for an exhaustive description of the evolution of mass spectrometry in nucleic acids analysis. This review will emphasize the new trends of using MALDI-TOF MS for specific applications in molecular biology and pharmacogenomics. 

The main goal of data treatment in conventional mass spectrometry (MS) is to facilitate identification and quantification of analytes. The focus of time-resolved mass spectrometry (TRMS) is to track variations of identities and quantities of analytes and products over time. In many chemical reactions, the concentrations of reactants decrease and those of products increase with time. In more complex reactions, reaction intermediates exist and their concentrations may increase and decrease within certain periods of time. The evolution of reaction intermediates is distinct from that of reactants and products. TRMS provides an insight into the progress of reactions by identifying molecules based on their mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios. It also determines concentrations of molecules based on signal intensities of ions. Thus, it is important for TRMS to interpret MS data on highly complex and dynamic systems correctly. This chapter will first introduce definitions of various technical terms, and then discuss how to predict molecular compositions of complex mixtures based on the information contained in mass spectra. 

Segev, E. Wyttenhach, T. Bowers, M. T. Gerber, R. B. Conformational evolution of ubiquitin ions in electrospray mass spectrometry Molecular dynamics simulations at gradually increasing temperatures. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2008,10, 3077-3082. 

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