FTMS structure elucidation of natural products: application to muraymycin antibiotics using ESI multi-CHEF SORI-CID FTMS(n), the top-down/bottom-up approach, and HPLC ESI capillary-skimmer CID FTMS.

The molecular formulas for the structures and substructures of muraymycin antibiotics A1 (C52H90N14O19, MW 1214) and B1 (C49H83N11O18, MW 1113) were determined using electrospray ionization (ESI) Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS). The muraymycin A1 and B1 structures were elucidated by utilizing capillary-skimmer fragmentation with up to five stages of mass spectrometry (MS5). Multi-CHEF, a multiple ion isolation method, was used at each stage of MS(n) to isolate a parent ion and up to four reference ions, for exact-mass calibration. The parent ions were fragmented by SORI-CID and the product ions internally calibrated with average absolute mass errors less than 1 ppm at each stage in the fragmentation processes. Using the top-down/bottom-up approach, the molecular formulas for the antibiotics were determined by summing the elemental formulas of the neutral losses, obtained by measuring the mass differences (<500 Da) between the genetically related sequential parent ion masses in the MS(n) spectra, with the unique elemental formula of the lowest parent ion mass (<500 Da). The structures of 12 additional compounds in the muraymycin complex were elucidated using HPLC ESI capillary-skimmer CID FTMS by correlating their fragmentation patterns with those of muraymycins A1 and B1. Sequential neutral losses of an aminosugar, a valine, a uridine, and an ester fatty acid from the muraymycin parent ions provided diagnostic fragments for characterization.