Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) is a specialized technique used to provide information about the geographic, chemical, and biological origins of substances. The ability to determine the source of an organic substance stems from the relative isotopic abundances of the elements which comprise the material. Because the isotope ratios of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen can become locally enriched or depleted through a variety of kinetic and thermodynamic factors, measurement of the isotope ratios can be used to differentiate between samples which otherwise share identical chemical compositions. Several sample introduction methods are now available for commercial isotope ratio mass spectrometers. Combustion is most commonly used for bulk isotopic analysis, whereas gas and liquid chromatography are predominately used for the real-time isotopic analysis of specific compounds within a mixture. Here, highlights of advances in instrumentation and applications within the last three years are provided to illustrate the impact of this rapidly growing area of research. Some prominent new applications include authenticating organic food produce, ascertaining whether or not African elephants are guilty of night-time raids on farmers' crops, and linking forensic drug and soil samples from a crime scene to a suspected point of origin. For the sake of brevity, we focus this Minireview on the isotope ratio measurements of lighter-elements common to organic sources; we do not cover the equally important field of inorganic isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

The binding of a DNA aptamer (5'-CCGTCTTCCAGACAAGAGTGCAGGG-3') to recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF(165)) was characterized using surface plasmon resonance (SPR), fluorescence anisotropy and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Results from both fluorescence anisotropy and ITC indicated that a single aptamer molecule binds to each VEGF homodimer, unlike other VEGF inhibitors that exhibit 2(ligand):1(VEGF homodimer) stoichiometry. In addition, ITC revealed that the association of the aptamer to VEGF at 20 degrees C is enthalpically driven, with an unfavorable entropy contribution. SPR kinetic studies, with careful control of possible mass transfer effects, demonstrated that the aptamer binds to VEGF with an association rate constant k(on) = 4.79 +/- 0.03 x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1) and a dissociation rate constant k(off) = 5.21 +/- 0.02 x 10(-4) s(-1) at 25 degrees C. Key recognition hot-spots were determined by a combination of aptamer sequence substitutions, truncations, and extensions. Most single-nucleotide substitutions, particularly within an mfold-predicted stem, suppress binding, whereas those within a predicted loop have a minimal effect. The 5'-end of the aptamer plays a key role in VEGF recognition, as a single-nucleotide truncation abolished VEGF binding. Conversely, an 11-fold increase in the association rate (and affinity) is observed with a single cytosine nucleotide extension, due to pairing of the 3'-GGG with 5'-CCC in the extended aptamer. Our approach effectively maps the secondary structural elements in the free aptamer, which present the unpaired interface for high affinity VEGF recognition. These data demonstrate that a directed binding analysis can be used in concert with library screening to characterize and improve aptamer/ligand recognition.

Extensive backbone fragmentation resulting in a-, b-, c-, x-, y- and z-type ions is observed of singly and doubly charged peptide ions through their interaction with a high kinetic energy beam of argon or helium metastable atoms in a modified quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer. The ability to determine phosphorylation-sites confirms the observation with previous reports and we report the new ability to distinguish between leucine and isoleucine residues and the ability to cleave two covalent bonds of the proline ring resulting in a-, b-, x-, y-, z- and w-type ions. The fragmentation spectra indicate that fragmentation occurs through nonergodic radical ion chemistry akin to electron capture dissociation (ECD), electron transfer dissociation (ETD) and electron ionization dissociation mechanisms. However, metastable atom-activated dissociation mass spectrometry demonstrates three apparent benefits to ECD and ETD: (1) the ability to fragment singly charged precursor ions, (2) the ability to fragment negatively charged ions and (3) the ability to cleave the proline ring that requires the cleavage of two covalent bonds. Helium metastable atoms generated more fragment ions than argon metastable atoms for both substance P and bradykinin regardless of the precursor ion charge state. Reaction times less than 250 ms and efficiencies approaching 5% are compatible with on-line fragmentation, as would be desirable for bottom-up proteomics applications.

Reaction pathways and rate constants of gas-phase uranium and uranium oxide ions with O 2 and H 2 O have been investigated using a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer (QIT-MS). A new reaction pathway is identified for the reaction between U 2+ and H 2 O, which leads to the formation of UO + via the intermediate UOH 2+ . Reaction rate constants are determined for several reactions by measuring the reaction rate at different partial pressures of the reagent gas and are found to be in reasonable agreement with the literature. These rate constants include the first known measurement for the reaction of U 2+ with H 2 O (∼0.4 k ADO ). New limits on thermochemical values are also provided for certain species. These include ∆H f (UO 2+ ) e 1742 kJ mol -1 and 1614 e ∆H f (UOH 2+ ) e 1818 kJ mol -1 and are based on the assumption that only exothermic or thermoneutral reactions are possible under the conditions used. This assumption is supported by simulations of the root-mean-square (RMS) ion kinetic energy of stored uranium ions in the QIT. Only a slight increase in the RMS ion kinetic energies, from 0.1 to 0.2 eV, is predicted over the range of trapping conditions studied (0.05 e q z e 0.75) corresponding to a theoretical reaction temperature of ∼384 K. The simulations also compare helium and neon as bath gases and show that the RMS kinetic energies are found to be very similar at long trapping times (>20 ms), although neon establishes steady state conditions in approximately half the time.

A kiloelectronvolt beam of helium ions is used to ionize and fragment precursor peptide ions starting in the 1+ charge state. The electron affinity of helium cations (24.6 eV) exceeds the ionization potential of protonated peptides and can therefore be used to abstract an electron from--or charge exchange with--the isolated precursor ions. Kiloelectronvolt energies are used, (1) to overcome the Coulombic repulsion barrier between the cationic reactants, (2) to overcome ion-defocussing effects in the ion trap, and (3) to provide additional activation energy. Charge transfer dissociation (CTD) of the [M+H](+) precursor of Substance P gives product ions such as [M+H](2+•) and a dominant series of a ions in both the 1+ and 2+ charge states. These observations, along with the less-abundant a + 1 ions, are consistent with ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) results of others and indicate that C-C(α) cleavages are possible through charge exchange with helium ions. Although the efficiencies and timescale of CTD are not yet suitable for on-line chromatography, this new approach to ion activation provides an additional potential tool for the interrogation of gas phase ions.

There are still a large proportion of countries, especially in Africa, where there are no available data for human carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios. Although the interpretation of modern human carbon isotope ratios at the global scale is quite possible, and correlates with the latitude, the potential influences of extrinsic and/or intrinsic factors on human nitrogen isotope ratios have to be taken into consideration.

Evidence is provided that illustrates quadrupole ion traps can be used to selectively attenuate strongly bound diatomic ions occurring at the same nominal mass as an analyte ion of interest. Dissociation rates for TaO 1 (D 0 y 750 kJ mol 21 ) are found to be at least an order of magnitude larger than the loss rate of Au 1 due to scattering under ''slow heating'' resonance excitation conditions at q z ~0.67 and using neon as the bath gas. This rate difference is sufficient for the selective removal of this strongly-bound diatomic ion over the loss of the Au 1 at the same mass-to-charge ratio. Other examples of quadrupole ion trap CID for the selective reduction of common plasma-generated species are also evaluated by examining the dissociation of GdO 1 in the presence of Yb 1 , and Cu 2 1 in the presence of Te 1 . In each case, a different method of applying the excitation signals is presented, and the attenuation rates for the diatomic species due to CID are substantially larger than scattering losses for the bare metal ions. Evidence is also presented that demonstrates CID can be accomplished in concert with a slow mass analysis scan, thereby providing a means of (1) eliminating polyatomic ions (formed in the plasma or reaction cell) over an extended mass range, (2) recovering metal ion signal from the metal-containing polyatomic ions, and (3) minimizing deleterious secondary reactions of product ions.

The fragmentation pattern of several protonated 1+ phosphatidylcholines (PCs) were studied using low energy collision induced dissociation (CID) and helium metastable atom-activated dissociation (He-MAD). He-MAD of the protonated compounds produced a dominant phosphocholine head group at m/z 184 as well as typical sn-1 and sn-2 glycerol fragments such as [M+H–Rx-1CHC=O]+ and [M+H-Rx-1CO2H]+. Within the aliphatic chain, He-MAD showed fragments consistent with high-energy collision induced dissociation (HE-CID) and products/pathways consistent with Penning ionization of the 1+ precursor ions to their respective radical dications. These Penning ionization products included both singly and doubly charged radical fragments, and the fragment ions are related to the number and position of double bonds in the acyl chains. Fragments created through HE-CID-like fragmentation followed classic charge remote fragmentation pathways including ladder-like fragmentation along the acyl chain, except for additional or missing peaks due to predictable rearrangement reactions. He-MAD therefore shows utility in being able to effectively fragment singly charged lipids into a variety of useful product ions using both radical and high-energy processes in the confines of a 3D ion trap.