Electrospray Tandem Mass Spectrometry of Ecdysteroid Moulting Hormones

Abstract

Electrospray mass spectrometIy has aided the structural characterization of ecdysteroid moulting hormones as a means of understanding factors controlling the moulting cycle in crabs. Possible fragmentation routes were frrst obtained by controlled collision-activated dissociation (CAD) initiated by cone voltage fragmentation. Low energy CAD MSIMS analyses of the protonated molecules [M+H]⁺ confrrmed the characteristic fmgerprint patterns obtained by cone voltage fragmentation. MSIMS analyses of selected intermediate fragments provided additional structural data and established the fragmentation routes.