Characterization of cardiolipin from Escherichia coli by electrospray ionization with multiple stage quadrupole ion-trap mass spectrometric analysis of [M - 2H + Na]- ions.

We report a multiple-stage ion-trap (IT) mass spectrometric approach with electrospray ionization (ESI) for structural characterization of the [M - 2H + Na]- ion of cardiolipin (CL), a 1,3-bisphosphatidyl-sn-glycerol that consists of four fatty acyl chains and three glycerol backbones designated as A, B, and central glycerol, respectively (see Scheme 1). Following collisionally activated dissociation (CAD), the [M - 2H + Na]- ions of CL yield two prominent fragment ions that arise from the differential losses of the diacylglycerol moieties containing A or B glycerol, respectively. The tentative assignment of the two phosphatidyl moieties attached to the 1'- or 3'-position of the central glycerol is based on the observation that the ions arising from loss of the diacylglycerol moiety containing glycerol B is more abundant than that containing glycerol A. The structures of the above two ions, including the identities of the fatty acyl substituents and the position of fatty acyl substituents on the glycerol backbones (glycerol A and B) are determined by MS3 experiments that give spectra comprising several sets of prominent ions informative for the structural assignment of the fatty acyl substituents on the glycerol A and glycerol B. This method permits the structures of CL in a mixture isolated from Escherichia coli, including species that consist of various isomers, to be unveiled in detail.