Dc. Vansetten et G. Vandewerken, MONOMER MAPPING - A PC-BASED SOFTWARE TOOL FACILITATING THE DETERMINATION OF MONOMER COMPOSITIONS FROM MASS-SPECTROMETRIC MOLECULAR-WEIGHT DATA, Rapid communications in mass spectrometry, 8(11), 1994, pp. 917-919
A method has been developed to establish the monomer composition of (b
io)macromolecules. The method, which we call monomer mapping, involves
mass spectrometry and a computer program. Given the (nominal) m/z val
ue of the molecular ion as well as the elemental compositions of all m
onomeric residues possibly present, the computer program generates all
fitting monomer compositions and their corresponding m/z ratios. The
determination of the monomer composition is enabled by verification of
the presence of a signal at the calculated m/z ratios for the individ
ual monomers, using high resolving power mass spectrometry. Monomer ma
pping can be used to determine monomer compositions of individual comp
onents in mixtures without applying (chromatographic) separation techn
iques. The scope of monomer mapping has been enlarged by combining it
with the results of per-O-methylation, which gives information on the
number of exchangeable hydrogens. The results of, for instance, amino
acid analysis could also be included in the program. Monomer mapping h
as been successfully applied to determine the glycosyl compositions of
saponins.