Simple electrospray mass spectrometry detection of acylhomoserine lactones

Abstract

Simple (non-tandem) electrospray mass spectrometry (ESMS) can detect acyl homoserine lactones (AHL) in bacteriological media in picomole amounts. The chemical reactivity of AHLs and their extraction behaviour into ethyl acetate, coupled with detection in the ESMS, has shown that these lactones can be detected as the protonated pseudomolecular ions themselves as well as solvent and ammonium adducts, and as dimers. ESMS detects and identifies these molecules, utilizing simple chemical properties of AHLs.