ONLINE CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS ELECTROSPRAY-IONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY OF NUCLEOTIDES

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and reversed anionic capillary is otachophoresis (CITP) conditions have been developed for the separatio n of mixtures comprised of monophosphate nucleosides, pyridine and fla vin dinucleotides, and monophosphate dinucleosides. Results for the on -line coupling of CZE and CITP with electrospray ionization mass spect rometry (MS) are presented. CITP-tandem MS is utilized to provide both molecular weight and structural information of monophosphate dinucleo sides. The fragmentation pattern of dinucleotides in the low collision energy range is described. The resulting mass spectra are readily int erpreted in terms of dinucleotide structures. These results demonstrat e the new capability for applications for the study of DNA and RNA.