Tandem mass spectrometric analysis of a mixture of isobars using the survival yield technique.

Collision induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry experiments were performed to unequivocally separate compounds from an isobaric mixture of two products. The Survival Yield curve was obtained and is shown to consist in a linear combination of the curves corresponding to the two components separately. For such a mixture, a plateau appears on the diagram in lieu of the continuous decrease expected allowing for the structural study of the two components separately. The width of the plateau critically relates to the fragmentation parameters of the two molecular ions, which need to be sufficiently different structurally for the plateau to be observed. However, at constant fragmentation parameters, we have observed the width significantly increases at large m/z. This makes the separation more and more efficient as isobars have larger m/z and the technique complementary to those applicable at low m/z only. We have observed that the vertical position of the plateau relates linearly to the relative concentration of the two compounds that may be useful for quantification. Repeatability was estimated at 2% on a quadrupole ion trap. An advantage of using survival yield curves only, is that a priori knowledge of the respective fragmentation patterns of the two isobars becomes unnecessary. Consequently, similar performances are obtained if fragments are isobaric, which is also demonstrated in our study. The critical case of reverse peptides, at low m/z and similar fragmentation parameters, is also presented as a limitation of the method.