December 2010, Sunnyvale, CA—Dionex is proud to announce a new platform developed to measure various metabolites in Brassica napus seeds. Customer Application Note 109: Primary Metabolite Analysis of Plant Material Using a Triple Quadrupole MS Coupled to a Monolith Anion-Exchange Column demonstrates that the combination of separation using the 1 mm IonSwift^™ MAX-100 column and detection with the API 4000^™ electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) system from AB SCIEX provides a simple, rapid, specific, and sensitive method for the simultaneous detection and quantification of several primary metabolites involved in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and glycolysis pathway. Compared to the previously used IonPac^® AS11-HC column, the IonSwift MAX-100 product has shorter run times and helps achieve better sensitivity.

This new platform combines Dionex ion chromatography (IC) and triple quadrupole MS. The IC tandem mass spectrometry (IC-MS/MS) technique provides a good tool to identify and quantify metabolites in a complex matrix. The biological pathways include many homologs and structural isomers with the same mass and analog fragmentations, so it is essential for the analysis to have a good separation of the different compounds.

Dionex (NASDAQ:DNEX) is a global leader in the manufacturing and marketing of liquid chromatography and sample preparation systems, consumables, and software for chemical analysis. The company's systems are used worldwide in environmental analysis and by the life sciences, chemical, petrochemical, food and beverage, power generation, and electronics industries. Our expertise in applications and instrumentation helps analytical scientists to evaluate and develop pharmaceuticals, establish environmental regulations, and produce better industrial products.

IonSwift is a trademark and IonPac is a registered trademark of Dionex Corporation.
API 4000 is a trademark of AB SCIEX.