Electrospray mass spectra of three proprietary detergents

We have determined the major ingredients of the commercially available reagents M-PER, Y-PER, and B-PER from Pierce Chemical Co. using electrospray mass spectrometry. These three proprietary reagents have been widely used in the biochemical community as cell membrane dissolving tools during the initial step of protein purification. However, the identity and mechanism of these reagents remained unknown. In this paper, we identified these reagents as 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate, N-tetradecyl-N,N-dimethyl-3-ammonio-1-propanesulfonate, and n-octyl-beta-d-thioglucopyranoside, respectively. In addition, we wish to stress here the increasing importance of the role of electrospray mass spectrometry in the analysis of such proprietary biological preparations which are increasingly finding their way into the biochemical literature.