title: Picolinic acid as a matrix for laser mass spectrometry of nucleic acids and proteins.
abstract: We found that picolinic acid is a very good matrix for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight mass spectrometry of oligonucleotides, proteins and tRNA. Among the oligonucleotides, picolinic acid was shown to be effective for homo-oligonucleotides, d(G)40 and d(C)60, and for mixed-base oligonucleotides up to 190 bases. In the case of the single-stranded oligonucleotides, and of double-stranded ones as well, only parent ions corresponding to single-stranded DNA were observed. The efficiency for MALDI of oligonucleotides using the picolinic acid matrix was superior to that using 3-hydroxypicolinic acid. MALDI of transfer RNA phenylalanine-specific (tRNA(Phe)), a 76-base ribonucleic acid, was detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of > 10. By comparison with 3-hydroxypicolinic acid the results with picolinic acid are notably superior for all oligonucleotides.
authors.affiliation: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee 37831.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: N I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Taranenko
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Allman
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Cháng
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Jacobson
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003460:Crystallization; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D007834:Lasers; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D010848:Picolinic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D012360:RNA, Transfer, Phe / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D009696:Nucleic Acids; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D010848:Picolinic Acids; D011506:Proteins; D012360:RNA, Transfer, Phe; C049246:3-hydroxypicolinic acid; D004247:DNA