INFLUENCE OF THE MATRIX ON THE ANALYSIS OF SMALL OLIGORIBONUCLEOTIDESBY FAST-ATOM-BOMBARDMENT MASS-SPECTROMETRY

The analysis of oligonucleotides by mass spectrometry should give info rmation on both the molecular mass and sequence. Fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry gives both in one step. Until now glycerol, thiogly cerol and triethanolamine have been used as matrices for the analysis of oligonucleotides by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FABMS) , but there have been no comparative studies for matrix selection for these specific analytes. In this work, the influence of diethanolamine , glycerol, 1-thioglycerol and triethanolamine on the analysis of unpr otected trimer up to heptamer oligoribonucleotides was studied using n egative-ion FABMS on a sector-type mass spectrometer. Collision-induce d dissociation MS/MS measurements were performed and the fragmentation patterns in MS and MS/MS were compared.