Instrumental dependent dissociations of n-propyl/isopropyl phosphonate isomers: evaluation of resonant and non-resonant vibrational activations

Energy-Resolved Ion Mobility Spectrometry: Composite Breakdown Curves for Distinguishing Isomeric Product Ions

Identification of lipopeptides (LpAA) synthesized from bacteria involves the study of structural characterization. Twenty LpAA have been characterized using commercial tandem high-resolution mass spectrometers in negative electrospray, employing nonresonant excitation in "RF only" collision cells and generally behave identically. However, [LpAA-H]^- (AA = Asp or Glu) shows surprising fragmentation pathways, yielding a complementary fatty acid carboxylate and dehydrated amino acid fragment anions. In this study, the dissociation mechanisms of [C12Glu-H]^- were determinate using energy-resolved mass spectrometry (ERMS). Product ion breakdown profiles are, generally, unimodal with full width at half-maximum (fwhm) increasing as product ion m/z ratios decrease, except for the two product ions of interest (fatty acid carboxylate and dehydrated glutamate) characterized by broad and composite profiles. Such behavior was already shown for other ions using a custom-built guided ion beam mass spectrometer. In this study, we investigate the meaning of these particular profiles from an ERMS breakdown, using fragmentation mechanisms depending on the collision energy. ERMS on line with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), here called ER-IMS, provides a way to probe such questions. Broad or composite profiles imply that the corresponding product ions may be generated by two (or more) pathways, resulting in common or isomeric product ion structures. ER-IMS analysis indicates that the fatty acid carboxylate product ion is produced with a common structure through different pathways, while dehydrated glutamate has two isomeric forms depending on the mechanism involved. Drift time values correlate with the calculated collision cross section that confirms the product ion structures and fragmentation mechanisms.

Identification of bacterial lipo-amino acids: origin of regenerated fatty acid carboxylate from dissociation of lipo-glutamate anion

The identification of bacterial metabolites produced by the microbiota is a key point to understand its role in human health. Among them, lipo-amino acids (LpAA), which are able to cross the epithelial barrier and to act on the host, are poorly identified. Structural elucidation of few of them was performed by high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry based on electrospray combined with selective ion dissociations reach by collision-induced dissociation (CID). The negative ions were used for their advantages of yielding only few fragment ions sufficient to specify each part of LpAA with sensitivity. To find specific processes that help structural assignment, the negative ion dissociations have been scrutinized for an LpAA: the N-palmitoyl acyl group linked to glutamic acid (C16Glu). The singular behavior of [C16Glu-H]¯ towards CID showed tenth product ions, eight were described by expected fragment ions. In contrast, instead of the expected product ions due to CONH-CH bond cleavage, an abundant complementary dehydrated glutamic acid and fatty acid anion pair were observed. Specific to glutamic moiety, they were formed by a stepwise dissociation via molecular isomerization through ion–dipole formation prior to dissociation. This complex dissociated by partner splitting either directly or after inter-partner proton transfer. By this pathway, surprising regeneration of deprotonated fatty acid takes place. Such regeneration is comparable to that occurred from dissociation to peptides containing acid amino-acid. Modeling allow to confirm the proposed mechanisms explaining the unexpected behavior of this glutamate conjugate.

Atypical cleavage of protonated N-fatty acyl amino acids derived from aspartic acid evidenced by sequential MS3 experiments

Lipidomics calls for information on detected lipids and conjugates whose structural elucidation by mass spectrometry requires to rationalization of their gas phase dissociations toward collision-induced dissociation (CID) processes. This study focused on activated dissociations of two lipoamino acid (LAA) systems composed of N-palmitoyl acyl coupled with aspartic and glutamic acid mono ethyl esters (as LAA_(*D) and LAA_(*E)). Although in MS/MS, their CID spectra show similar trends, e.g., release of water and ethanol, the [(LAA_(*D/*E)+H)-C₂H₅OH]⁺ product ions dissociate via distinct pathways in sequential MS³ experiments. The formation of all the product ions is rationalized by charge-promoted cleavages often involving stepwise processes with ion isomerization into ion-dipole prior to dissociation. The latter explains the maleic anhydride or ketene neutral losses from N-palmitoyl acyl aspartate and glutamate anhydride fragment ions, respectively. Consequently, protonated palmitoyl acid amide is generated from LAA_(*D), whereas LAA_(*E) leads to the [*E+H-H₂O]⁺ anhydride. The former releases ammonia to provide acylium, which gives the C _n H_(2n-1) and C _n H_(2n-3) carbenium series. This should offer structural information, e.g., to locate either unsaturation(s) or alkyl group branching present on the various fatty acyl moieties of lipo-aspartic acid in further studies based on MS ⁿ experiments.

Mechanistic study of competitive releases of H2O, NH3 and CO2 from deprotonated aspartic and glutamic acids: Role of conformation

The aims of this study were to highlight the impact of minor structural differences (e.g. an aminoacid side chain enlargement by one methylene group), on ion dissociation under collision-induced dissociation conditions, and to determine the underlying chemical mechanisms. Therefore, we compared fragmentations of deprotonated aspartic and glutamic acids generated in negative electrospray ionization. Energy-resolved mass spectrometry breakdown curves were recorded and MS³ experiments performed on an Orbitrap Fusion for high-resolution and high-mass accuracy measurements. Activated fragmentations were performed using both the resonant and non-resonant excitation modes (i.e., CID and HCD, respectively) in order to get complementary information on the competitive and consecutive dissociative pathways. These experiments showed a specific loss of ammonia from the activated aspartate but not from the activated glutamate. We mainly focused on this specific observed loss from aspartate. Two different mechanisms based on intramolecular reactions (similar to those occurring in organic chemistry) were proposed, such as intramolecular elimination (i.e. Ei-like) and nucleophilic substitution (i.e. SNi-like) reactions, respectively, yielding anions as fumarate and α lactone from a particular conformation with the lowest steric hindrance (i.e. with antiperiplanar carboxyl groups). The detected deaminated aspartate anion can then release CO₂ as observed in the MS³ experimental spectra. However, quantum calculations did not indicate the formation of such a deaminated aspartate product ion without loss of carbon dioxide. Actually, calculations displayed the double neutral (NH₃+CO₂) loss as a concomitant pathway (from a particular conformation) with relative high activation energy instead of a consecutive process. This disagreement is apparent since the concomitant pathway may be changed into consecutive dissociations according to the collision energy i.e., at higher collision energy and at lower excitation conditions, respectively. The latter takes place by stabilization of the deaminated aspartate solvated with two residual molecules of water (present in the collision cell). This desolvated anion formed is an α lactone substituted by a methylene carboxylate group. The vibrational excitation acquired by [(D-H)-NH₃]^-during its isolation is enough to allow its prompt decarboxylation with a barrier lower than 8.4kJ/mol. In addition, study of glutamic acid-like diastereomers constituted by a cyclopropane, hindering any side chain rotation, confirms the impact of the three-dimensional geometry on fragmentation pathways. A significant specific loss of water is only observed for one of these diastereomers. Other experiments, such as stable isotope labeling, need to be performed to elucidate all the observed losses from activated aspartate and glutamate anions. These first mechanistic interpretations enhance understanding of this dissociative pathway and underline the necessity of studying fragmentation of a large number of various compounds to implement properly new algorithms for de novo elucidation of unknown metabolites.