Lipid composition of membranes of Escherichia coli by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry using negative electrospray ionization.

A liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) method using reversed-phase chromatography was developed for the analysis of phospholipids from bacterial extracts of a wild-type strain of Escherichia coli. Product ion mass spectra from [M--H](-) precursor ions allowed an identification of individual phospholipid species that includes both fatty acid composition and fatty acyl location on the glycerol backbone using diagnostic product ions. Thus, complete assignment, including sn-1/sn-2 fatty acyl position, was achieved for this strain of E. coli. In addition, the phospholipids were quantified relative to one another using an internal standard method.