title: Chemical-ionization mass spectra of the permethylated sialo-oligosaccharides liberated from gangliosides.
abstract: Permethylated mono- and di-sialo-oligosaccharides liberated from several parent gangliosides have been examined by chemical-ionization mass spectrometry with ammonia as the reagent gas in order to elucidate their structures. Several major fragment-ions, in addition to both the protonated and ammonium adduct molecular-ions, may be readily assigned without interference from the ceramide moiety. Sialic acid-containing di-, tri-, and tetra-saccharide ions can be clearly observed and used to determine the sugar residue to which the sialic acid residue is attached. The neutral-sugar skeletons produced by the loss of sialic acid give rise to both the protonated and the ammonium adduct ions; in the case of tetrasaccharides, these are further degraded to produce di- and tri-saccharide ions. These characteristic ions are useful for the determination of the number of sugar residues and their sequence in an oligosaccharide structure. The chemical-ionization mass spectra of GM3- and GM1-oligosaccharides with isobutane show the ions corresponding to each monosaccharide residue. These results indicate that chemical-ionization mass spectrometry is highly useful in determining the complete sugar-sequence of gangliosides.
mesh_terms: D001923:Brain Chemistry; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002621:Chemistry; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008745:Methylation; D009844:Oligosaccharides
chemical_list: D005732:Gangliosides; D009844:Oligosaccharides; C016735:sialooligosaccharides