Gas-phase hydrogen/deuterium exchange of 5'- and 3'-mononucleotides in a quadrupole ion trap: exploring the role of conformation and system energy.

Gas-phase hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange reactions for deprotonated 2'-deoxy-5'-monophosphate and 2'-deoxy-3'-monophosphate nucleotides with D(2)O were performed in a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer. To augment these experiments, molecular modeling was also conducted to identify likely deprotonation sites and potential gas-phase conformations of the anions. A majority of the 5'-monophosphates exchanged extensively with several of the compounds completely incorporating deuterium in place of their labile hydrogen atoms. In contrast, most of the 3'-monophosphate isomers exchanged relatively few hydrogen atoms, even though the rate of the first two exchanges was greater than observed for the 5'-monophosphates. Mononucleotides that failed to incorporate more than two deuterium atoms under default reaction conditions were often found to exchange more extensively when reactions were performed under higher energy conditions. Integration of the experimental and theoretical results supports the use of a relay exchange mechanism and suggests that the exchange behavior depends highly on the identity and orientation of the nucleobase and the position and flexibility of the deprotonated phosphate moiety. These observations also highlight the importance of the distance between the various participating groups in addition to their gas-phase acidity and basicity.