Towards a full reference library of MSn spectra. II: A perspective from the library of pesticide spectra extracted from the literature/Internet

To gain perspective on building full transferable libraries of MSn spectra from their diverse/numerous collections, a new library was built from 1723 MS > 1 spectra (mainlyMS(2) spectra) of 490 pesticides and related compounds. Spectra acquired on different types of tandem instruments in various experimental conditions were extracted from 168 literature articles and Internet sites. Testing of the library was based on searches where 'unknown' and reference spectra originated from different sources (mainly from different laboratories) were cross-compared. The NIST 05 MS2 library was added to the reference spectra. The library searches were performed with all the test spectra or were divided into different subsamples containing (a) various numbers of replicate spectra of test compounds or (b) spectra acquired from different instrument types. Thus, the dependence of true/false search (identification) result rates on different factors was explored. The percentage of 1(st) rank correct identifications (true positives) for the only 'unknown' mass spectrum and two and more reference spectra and matching precursor ion m/z values was 89%. For qualified matches, above the cut-off match factor, that rate decreased to 80%. The corresponding rates based on the best match for two and more 'unknown' and reference spectral replicates were 89-94%. For quadrupole instruments, the rates were even higher: 91-95% (one 'unknown' spectrum) and 90-100% (two and more such spectra). This study shows that MS2 spectral libraries generated from the numerous literature/Internet sources are not less efficient for the goal of identification of unknown compounds including pesticides than very common EI-MS1 libraries and are almost as efficient as the most productive from current MS2 spectral databases. Such libraries may be used as individual reference databases or supplements to large experimental spectral collections covering many groups of abundant compounds and different types of tandem mass spectrometers. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.