Methyl guanine isomer distinction by hydrogen / deuterium exchange using a fourier transform mass spectrometer.

Analytical Chemistry Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA Differentiation of the seven isomers of methyl guanine has been accomplished by monitoring gas-phase hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange reactions of the protonated molecular ions with deuterium oxide (D2O) in a Fourier transform mass spectrometer. In each case a distinctive reaction rate for the first H/D exchange was observed, and exchanges of up to three deuterium atoms occurred with characteristic ion abundances that could be used to differentiate the isomers. O(6)-Methyl guanine, for example, showed only one slow H/D exchange with D2O, whereas l-methyl guanine exchanged two hydrogen atoms at a significantly faster rate. On comparison of the possible resonance structures of each protonated isomer with the experimental information about the number and rate of H/D exchanges observed, a reaction mechanism involving a concerted proton abstraction-deuterium cation donation was proposed.