Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry of synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides

Abstract

Abstract Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry has been used to mass analyze a variety of synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides ranging in size from 6 to 30 nucleotides. Molecular ions were observed almost exclusively, with little or no fragmentation and generally minor contributions from multiply charged species. Mixtures of poly d(T) 12–30 with low picomole amounts of each component gave well resolved peaks. These results are encouraging for the concept of DNA sequence analysis by mass spectrometry.