Fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry in antibiotics: identification of nucleoside antitumor antibiotic toyocamycin in fermentation broth.

The presence of the nucleoside antitumor antibiotic toyocamycin in the fermentation broth was determined by a combination of negative and positive ion fast atom bombardment (FAB) mass spectrometry, high resolution FAB mass spectrometry and mass-analysed ion kinetic energy spectrometry (MIKES). A reasonable limit of detection for toyocamycin in the whole broth was obtained by combining the specificity of mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (also called tandem mass spectrometry) to FAB. The role played by the fermentation matrix upon the production and the observation of characteristic ions by FAB using xenon atoms was examined. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and FAB mass spectrometry were used to monitor toyocamycin at all stages of strain development, fermentation and recovery.