STAT: a saccharide topology analysis tool used in combination with tandem mass spectrometry

Sequential stages of mass spectrometry (MSn) have the potential to provide a great deal of structural information in glycan analysis. The saccharide topology analysis tool (STAT) presented here is a Web-based computational program that can quickly extract sequence information from a set of MSn spectra for an oligosaccharide of up to 10 residues. After information such as precursor ion mass, possible monosaccharide moieties, charge carrier, and product ion mass has been input, all possible connectivities are generated and evaluated against the MSn data. The list of possible structures is given a rating based on the likelihood that it is the correct sequence. Examples are given to demonstrate the feasibility of applying STAT to MSn data generated from bacterial lipooligosaccharides and an N-linked glycan. The major advantage of STAT is that the list of possible structures is generated quickly and the rating system pushes the more likely structures to the top of the list. Combining the data generated by STAT with data on the branching patterns of the glycan serves to eliminate all but a handful of structures. These remaining structures could then be used to guide further structural analysis.