Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37936244›Full record

ArticleJournal of cheminformatics2023

Determining the parent and associated fragment formulae in mass spectrometry via the parent subformula graph.

Sean Li, Björn Bohman, Gavin R Flematti, Dylan Jayatilaka

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of cheminformatics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.2field-weighted citation impact, top 40% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Sean LiSchool of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Australia. sean.li@research.uwa.edu.au.
Björn BohmanSchool of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Australia.
Gavin R FlemattiSchool of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Australia.
Dylan JayatilakaSchool of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Australia.
University of Western Australia · AUSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences · SE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIdentifying the molecular formula and fragmentation reactions of an unknown compound from its mass spectrum is crucial in areas such as natural product chemistry and metabolomics. We propose a method for identifying the correct candidate formula of an unidentified natural product from its mass spectrum. The method involves scoring the plausibility of parent candidate formulae based on a parent subformula graph (PSG), and two possible metrics relating to the number of edges in the PSG. This method is applicable to both electron-impact mass spectrometry (EI-MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) data. Additionally, this work introduces the two-dimensional fragmentation plot (2DFP) for visualizing PSGs.

resultsOur results suggest that incorporating information regarding the edges of the PSG results in enhanced performance in correctly identifying parent formulae, in comparison to the more well-accepted "MS/MS score", on the 2016 Computational Assessment of Small Molecule Identification (CASMI 2016) data set (76.3 vs 58.9% correct formula identification) and the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX) data set (66.2% vs 59.4% correct formula identification). In the extension of our method to identify the correct candidate formula from complex EI-MS data of semiochemicals, our method again performed better (correct formula appearing in the top 4 candidates in 20/23 vs 7/23 cases) than the MS/MS score, and enables the rapid identification of both the correct parent ion mass and the correct parent formula with minimal expert intervention.

conclusionOur method reliably identifies the correct parent formula even when the mass information is ambiguous. Furthermore, should parent formula identification be successful, the majority of associated fragment formulae can also be correctly identified. Our method can also identify the parent ion and its associated fragments in EI-MS spectra where the identity of the parent ion is unclear due to low quantities and overlapping compounds. Finally, our method does not inherently require empirical fitting of parameters or statistical learning, meaning it is easy to implement and extend upon. SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION: Developed, implemented and tested new metrics for assessing plausibility of candidate molecular formulae obtained from HR-MS data.

Indexed as

CombinatoricsFragmentationGraph theoryMass spectrometryMetabolomicsMolecular formulaNatural products

Identifiers

PMID37936244
PMCPMC10631010
OpenAlexW4388452679

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.