LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY IN NUCLEOSIDE, NUCLEOTIDE ANDMODIFIED NUCLEOTIDE CHARACTERIZATION

Macromolecules such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic aci d as well as their constituents play an important role in all kinds of biochemical reactions in nature. Hence their isolation and identifica tion plays a major role in biochemical analysis. Mass spectrometry (MS ) has gained an important position in this field because of the develo pment of soft ionization techniques such as fast atom bombardment (FAB ), liquid secondary mass spectrometry, thermospray ionization (TSP), t he atmospheric pressure ionization techniques, electrospray ionization and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization and matrix assisted lase r desorption. Because of their polar nature, mixtures of nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides are wel separated by liquid chromatog raphy (LC) and electrophoretic techniques. Therefore it is not surpris ing to note that a lot of effort has been put into the development of LC-MS methods for the analysis of these compounds. In this review, cov ering the period 1990-1996, the LC-MS analysis of nucleobases, nucleos ides, nucleotides, oligonucleotides and DNA adducts by TSP, continuous flow FAB and electrospray MS is discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.