Electron capture dissociation of oligosaccharides ionized with alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals

We extend the application of electron capture dissociation (ECD) (which requires at least two charges) to oligosaccharides without basic functionalities by utilizing alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Ba2+, Mg2+, Mn2+, Co2+, and Zn2+) as charge carriers in electrospray ionization. Both linear and branched oligosaccharides were examined, including maltoheptoase, p-lacto-N-hexaose, and an N-linked glycan from human alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein. For comparison, infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) was also applied to all oligosaccharide species. We show that, for certain metal-adducted oligosaccharides, particularly maltoheptaose, cross-ring cleavage, which can provide saccharide linkage information, is the dominant fragmentation pathway in ECD. By contrast, glycosidic cleavages dominate in IRMPD although cross-ring fragmentation was also observed to varying degrees depending on metal ion type. The branched N-linked glycan did not fragment as easily following ECD compared to the linear oligosaccharides, presumably due to intramolecular noncovalent interactions. However, this limitation was partially overcome with a combined ECD/IRMPD approach (activated ion ECD). For all metal-adducted oligosaccharides, complementary structural information was obtained with ECD as compared to IRMPD. Our results demonstrate that ECD of metal-adducted oligosaccharides is a valuable tool for structural characterization of oligosaccharides.