Fragmentation tandem mass spectrometry

Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) produces precise structural or sequence information by selective and specific induced fragmentation on samples up to several thousand Daltons. For samples of greater molecular mass than this, an enzyme digest will usually produce several peptides of molecular mass suitable for sequencing by mass spectrometry. The smaller sequences can be used to deduce the sequence of the whole protein. 

Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is a method for obtaining sequence and structural information by measurement of the mass-to-charge ratios of ionized molecules before and after dissociation reactions within a mass spectrometer which consists essentially of two mass spectrometers in tandem. In the first step, precursor ions are selected for further fragmentation by energy impact and interaction with a collision gas. The generated product ions can be analyzed by a second scan step. MS/MS measurements of peptides can be performed using electrospray or matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization in combination with triple quadruple, ion trap, quadrupole-TOF (time-of-flight), TOF-TOF or ion cyclotron resonance MS. Tandem... 

The ionization techniques most widely used for LC-MS, however, are termed soft ionization in that they produce primarily molecular species with little fragmentation. It is unlikely that the molecular weight alone will allow a structural assignment to be made and it is therefore desirable to be able to generate structural information from such techniques. There are two ways in which this may be done, one of which, the so-called cone-voltage or in-source fragmentation, is associated specifically with the ionization techniques of electiospray and APCl and is discussed later in Section 4.7.4. The other, termed mass spectrometry-mass spectrometry (MS-MS) or tandem mass spectrometry, is applicable to all forms of ionization, provided that appropriate hardware is available, and is described here. 

Figure 5.63 Proposed fragmentation pathway of the molecular ion from 8-hydroxy-2 -deoxyguanosine generated by negative ionization. Reprinted by permission of Elsevier Science from Comparison of negative- and positive-ion electrospray tandem mass spectrometry for the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis of oxidized deoxynucleosides , by Hua, Y., Wainhaus, S. B., Yang, Y., Shen, L., Xiong, Y., Xu, X., Zhang, F., Bolton, J. L. and van Breemen, R. B., Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, Vol. 12, pp. 80-87, Copyright 2000 by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

Like peptide oligomers, peptoids can be analyzed by HPLC and by mass spectrometry. They can be sequenced by Fdman degradation [13] or by tandem mass spectrometry [14] since, like polypeptides, they conveniently fragment along the main chain amides [15, 16]. 

Complex peptide mixmres can now be analyzed without prior purification by tandem mass spectrometry, which employs the equivalent of two mass spectrometers linked in series. The first spectrometer separates individual peptides based upon their differences in mass. By adjusting the field strength of the first magnet, a single peptide can be directed into the second mass spectrometer, where fragments are generated and their masses determined. As the sensitivity and versatility of mass spectrometry continue to increase, it is displacing Edman sequencers for the direct analysis of protein primary strucmre. 

Enzell, C.R., Francis, G.W., and Liaaen-Jensen, S., Mass spectrometric studies of carotenoids. 2. Survey of fragmentation reactions, Acto Chem. Scand., 3, 727, 1969. Van Breemen, R.B., Schmitz, H.H., and Schwartz, S.J., Fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry of carotenoids, J. Agric. Food Chem., 43, 384, 1995. 

In most cases, ion activation in the reaction region or fragmentation zone is applied to increase the internal energy of the ions transmitted from the ion source. The most common means of ion activation in tandem mass spectrometry is collision-induced dissociation. CID uses gas-phase collisions between the ion and neutral target gas (such as helium, nitrogen or argon) to cause internal excitation of the ion and subsequent dissociation... 

Snyder AP, Harden CS. 1990. Determination of the fragmentation mechanisms of organophosphorus ions by water and deuterium oxide atmospheric-pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry. II. Dialkylphosphonate ions. Org Mass Spectrom 25(6) 301-308. 

Figure 2.5. Tandem mass spectrometry. A. A peptide mixture is electrosprayed into the mass spectrometer. Individual peptides from the mixture are isolated (circled peptide) and fragmented. B. The fragments from the peptide are mass analyzed to obtain sequence information. The fragments obtained are derived from the N or C terminus of the peptide and are designated "b" or "y" ions, respectively. The spectrum shown indicates peptides that differ in size by the amino acids shown.

One attempt to overcome these disadvantages has been to use multidimensional liquid chromatography (LC) followed directly by tandem mass spectrometry to separate, fragment and identify proteins (Link et al., 1999). In this process, a denatured and reduced protein mixture is digested with a protease to create a collection of peptides (Fig. 2.6). The peptide mixture is applied to a cation exchange column and a fraction of these peptides are eluted based on charge onto a reverse-phase column. The... 

Different mass analysers can be combined with the electrospray ionization source to effect analysis. These include magnetic sector analysers, quadrupole filter (Q), quadrupole ion trap (QIT), time of flight (TOF), and more recently the Fourrier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass analysers. Tandem mass spectrometry can also be effected by combining one or more mass analysers in tandem, as in a triple quadrupole or a QTOF. The first analyzer is usually used as a mass filter to select parent ions that can be fragmented and analyzed by subsequent analysers. 

In soft ionization methods the excess energy deposited onto the ionized molecule is very small and stable even-electron ions are formed. This leads to easy determination of the molecular weight of the analyte, but as fragmentation is absent or it occurs to a very low extent, structural information is missing in the mass spectrum. However, one can obtain structural information by causing ion fragmentation out of the source by means of tandem mass spectrometry experiments (see below). 

Substituted tetrazoles reacting in the mass spectrometer with acyl ions afforded 2,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-oxadiazoles with nitrogen loss. Tandem mass spectrometry allowed for the collision-induced dissociation of the products. Chemical ionization was the better method to make the transformation. A scheme for the transformation of 5-substituted tetrazoles into 2,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-oxadiazoles was proposed (Scheme 1) <2001JMP1069>. The fragmentation patterns of monocyclic l,3,4-oxadiazolium-2-thiolates have been proposed by Ollis and Ramsden <1974J(P1)645>. 

Figure 3.9 Conceptual view of tandem mass spectrometry with a tandem-inspace triple quadrupole mass analyzer." The first mass analyzer (Ql) selects the precursor ion of interest by allowing only it to pass, while discriminating against all others. The precursor ion is then fragmented, usually by energetic collisions, in the second quadrupole (q2) that is operated in transmissive mode allowing all fragment ions to be collimated and passed into the third quadrupole (Q3). Q3 performs mass analysis on the product ions that compose the tandem mass spectra and are rationalized to a structure.

No tandem MS experiment can be successful if the precursor ions fail to fragment (at the right time and place). The ion activation step is crucial to the experiment and ultimately defines what types of products result. Hence, the ion activation method that is appropriate for a specific application depends on the MS instrument configuration as well as on the analyzed compounds and the structural information that is wanted. Various, more or less complementary, ion activation methods have been developed during the history of tandem MS. Below we give brief descriptions of several of these approaches. A more detailed description of peptide fragmentation mles and nomenclature is provided in Chapter 2. An excellent review of ion activation methods for tandem mass spectrometry is written by Sleno and Volmer, see Reference 12, and for a more detailed review on slow heating methods in tandem MS, see Reference 13. 

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