Cello-, malto- and xylooligosaccharide fragmentation by collision-induced dissociation using QIT and FT-ICR mass spectrometry: A systematic study

In order to study the effects of the precursor ion type and the carbohydrate structure on the fragmentation of neutral unsubstituted oligosaccharides in collision-induced dissociation (CID), a systematic study of deprotonated, protonated, ammoniated and alkali metal cationized cello-, malto- and xylooligosaccharides was carried out using a quadrupole ion trap (QIT) and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry. The fragmentation pathway was highly dependent on the choice of the precursor ion type. Deprotonated precursors gave rise to both glycosidic and cross-ring fragmentation, with clear differences among the three oligosaccharides, therefore being the most prominent for structural analysis. The fragmentation behavior of the xylooligosaccharides differed from that of the cello- and maltooligosaccharides for all the precursor ions studied, most remarkably with the deprotonated and ammoniated precursors. Stereochemical differentiation of cello- and maltooligosaccharides was possible with the use of deprotonated, lithiated and sodiated precursors. In general, as the size of the alkali metal cation increased the amount of structurally informative cross-ring fragmentation increased, but the probability for metal ion loss from the precursor ion also increased. The CID spectra of xylooligosaccharides measured with the QIT and FT-ICR were surprisingly similar.