A method for direct mass spectrometry-based identification of mono-methylated RNA nucleoside positional isomers and its application to the analysis of Leishmania ribosomal RNA.

RNA post-transcriptional modifications are common in all kingdoms of life and are predominantly affiliated with methylations at various nucleobase positions. Methylations occur frequently at specific sites on the RNA nucleobases and appear to regulate site-specific intermolecular/intramolecular interactions. Herein, we present a method that utilizes liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to identify positional monomethylated RNA nucleoside isomers. The method produces profiles of in-source fragmentation and subsequent tandem mass spectrometry (MS2) (pseudo-MS3) of RNase-digested fragments of an RNA and distinguishes between positional methylated nucleobase isomers by comparing their intranucleobase fragment ion profiles with signature profiles derived from authentic isomers. For method validation, we independently determined the positions of all known monomethylated nucleoside isomers in the Escherichia coli 16S/23S rRNAs. As proof of concept, we further applied this technology to fully characterize the base-modified nucleoside positional isomers, in rRNAs derived from Leishmania donovani, a human blood parasite afflicting millions around the globe. The method described herein will be highly beneficial for the delineation of RNA modification profiles in various cellular RNAs, and as it only requires a subpicomole amount of RNA, it could also be used for the structure function studies of RNA populations represented in minute amounts in the cell.