Published online 2 August 2006
Nucleic Acids Research, 2006, Vol. 34, No. 13 e94
© 2006 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commerical use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Methods Online |
A matrix of 3,4-diaminobenzophenone for the analysis of oligonucleotides by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry
National Chromatographic R&A Center, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences Dalian 116023, China 1 Department of Chemistry, Cleveland State University Cleveland, OH 44115, USA
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +86 411 843 79610; Fax: +86 411 843 79620; Email: hanfazou{at}dicp.ac.cn
*Correspondence may also be addressed to Baochuan Guo. Tel: +1 216 687 2471; Fax: +1 216 687 9298; Email: b.guo{at}csuohio.edu
Received April 10, 2006. Revised July 1, 2006. Accepted July 3, 2006.
A new matrix of 3,4-diaminobenzophenone (DABP) was demonstrated to be advantageous in the analysis of oligonucleotides by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. With DABP as a matrix, intact oligonucleotide ions can be readily produced with lower laser powers, resulting in better detection limits, less fragmentation and fewer alkali metal ion adducts compared with the results obtained with conventional matrices. Importantly, minimal fragmentation and fewer alkali metal ion adducts were seen even at low concentrations of oligonucleotides. It was also found that samples prepared with DABP are highly homogenous and therefore reducing the need for finding ‘sweet’ spots in MALDI. In addition, excellent shot-to-shot reproducibility, resolution and signal-to-noise ratio were seen with DABP as the matrix.