Higher-Energy Collisional Dissociation Mass Spectral Networks for the Rapid, Semi-automated Characterization of Known and Unknown Ribonucleoside Modifications

Higher-energy collisional dissociation (HCD) of modified ribonucleosides generates characteristic and highly reproducible nucleoside-specific tandem mass spectra (MS/MS). Here, we demonstrate the capability of HCD spectra in combination with spectral matching for the semi-automated characterization of ribonucleosides. This process involved the generation of an HCD spectral library and the establishment of a mass spectral network for rapid detection with high sensitivity and specificity in a retention time-independent fashion. Systematic spectral matching analysis of the MS/MS spectra of tRNA hydrolysates from different organisms has helped us to uncover evidence for the existence of novel ribonucleoside modifications such as s2Cm and OHyW-14. Such an untargeted label-free approach has the potential to be integrated with other methods, including those that use isotope labeling, to simplify the characterization of unknown modified ribonucleosides. These findings suggest the compilation of a universal spectral network, for the characterization of known and unknown ribonucleosides, could accelerate discoveries in the epitranscriptome.