a biotinylated 31-, 83-, or 84-mer DNA sequence (100 pmol) was mixed
with 2 μL of matrix containing 1 μL of 3-hydroxy picolinic
acid (3-HPA) (50 mg/mL dissolved in acetonitrile/water 50% v/v) and
1 μL of diammonium hydrogen citrate (DAHC) (50 mg/mL dissolved
in acetonitrile/water 50% v/v). MALDI-TOF experiments were performed
using Axima Performance from Shimadzu Biotech. The mass spectrometric
measurement of 31-mer oligonucleotides was carried out in a reflectron
positive mode. The calibration of the instrument in reflectron positive
mode was performed using low-molecular-weight oligonucleotide or peptide
standard calibration kit. For high-molecular-weight oligonucleotides
(>10 000 Da), calibration was done in a linear negative
mode
using 52-, 80-, 90-, and 100-mer standards with laser power 120 in
order to enhance the signal intensity. The spectral data was processed
by using Shimadzu Biotech MALDI-MS software with processing parameters
as follows: smoothing filter width as 20 channels, baseline filter
width as 80 channels, and double threshold.