Qualitative Analysis of Lipid A from Intestinal Bacteria by Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Introduction

This report describes an example of using a high-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer to estimate the structure of natural compounds produced by bacteria. Lipid A is a bioactive molecule on the cell surface of gram-negative bacteria that induces an immune response in hosts such as humans. It is known that human intestinal bacteria, Bacteroides fragilis, have lipid A, but its structure has not been investigated in detail. In this study, the structures of lipid A from B. fragilis were elucidated by taking advantage of the accuracy and reliability of mass information obtained using an LCMS^TM-9030 spectrometer. It is expected that high-resolution mass spectrometers will contribute to discovering useful natural compounds and expediting analysis of their structure.

September 29, 2022 GMT