Direct analysis by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry of mixtures of phosphatidyldiacylglycerols from Lactobacillus.

Electrospray ionization followed by collision-induced dissociation in a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer of mixtures of deprotonated phosphatidyldiacylglycerols afforded a group of three diagnostic ions of convenient abundance for each phosphatidyldiacylglycerol (PG) present in the mixture. Thus, it was possible to determine unmistakably the identity and substitution positions (sn-1 or sn-2) for both acyl groups of each PG present in the mixture. The method also allows the study of isomeric mixtures of PG and mixtures containing minor amounts of some PG from crude extracts of Lactobacillus acidophillus. The present results improve those of previous studies using fast atom bombardment and electrospray ionization tanden mass spectrometry, in which it was reported that it was possible to differentiate the identity and position of the sn-2 acyl substituent only by the presence of one ion, with variable abundance. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.