Recent studies revealed that the 3=-terminal nucleotides in plant microRNAs were methylated on the ribose at the 2= or 3= hydroxyl groups. Here we examined the fragmentation of the electrospray-produced [M ϩ H] ϩ and [M Ϫ H] Ϫ ions of 2=-and 3=-O-methylated ribonucleosides. It turned out that the predominant fragmentation pathway for the [M ϩ H] ϩ ions of ribose-methylated nucleosides was the neutral loss of the methylated ribose, which made it impossible to distinguish 2=-O-methylation from 3=-O-methylation by positive-ion MS/MS. However, characteristic fragment ions, resulting from the cleavage through the ribose rings, were produced for the [M Ϫ H] Ϫ ions of each pair of ribose-methylated nucleosides. In this respect, the neutral loss of a 90-Da fragment (C 3 H 6 O 3 ) was observed for 2=-O-methylated cytidine, guanosine and adenosine, but not for their 3=-O-methylated counterparts. On the other hand, the neutral loss of a 60-Da fragment (C 2 H 4 O 2 ) was found for 3=-O-methyluridine, but not for 2=-O-methyluridine.