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Updated: May 6, 2026

Natural Product Discovery with LC-MS/MS Diagnostic Fragmentation Filtering: Application for Microcystin Analysis
Published on: May 31, 2019
Chirality in microcystins
1Development and Engineering Center, U.S. Army Chemical Research, 21010-5423, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.
Abstract:
A new method has been developed to identify the isomers of amino acids by derivatization of the corresponding standards with 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrophenyl-5-L-alanine amide (Marfey's reagent or FDAA) and analysis of the diastereomeric derivatives by a liquid chromatography-thermospray mass spectrometry technique. Quantification of the FDAA derivatives that originate from standards was possible by using L-phenylalanine as the internal standard. The procedure was applied to determine the chiralities of the amino acids present in some previously uncharacterized blue-green algal peptides (microcystins).
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