Precise structural differentiation of often isomeric glycans is important given their roles in numerous biological processes. Mass spectrometry (MS) (and tandem MS) is one of the analytical techniques at the forefront of glycan analysis given its speed, sensitivity in producing structural information as well as the fact it can be coupled to other orthogonal analytical techniques such as liquid chromatography (LC) and ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). This review describes another family of techniques that are more commonly being hybridized to MS(/MS) namely gas-phase infrared (IR) spectroscopy, whose rise is in part due to the development and improved accessibility of tunable IR lasers. Gas-phase IR can often differentiate fine isomeric differences ubiquitous within carbohydrates that MS may be 'blind' to. There are also examples of cryogenic gas-phase IR spectroscopy with much greater spectral resolution as well as hybridizing with separative methods (LC, IMS). Furthermore, collision-induced dissociation (CID) product ions can also be probed by IR, which may be beneficial to deconvolute spectra, aid analysis and build spectral libraries, thus generating novel opportunities for fragment-based approaches to analyze glycans.

中文翻译：

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质谱与气相红外光谱杂交，进行聚糖测序。

考虑到异构体在许多生物学过程中的作用，精确的结构区分通常很重要。质谱（MS）（和串联MS）是聚糖分析领域最前沿的分析技术之一，因为它的速度，生成结构信息的灵敏度以及它可以与其他正交分析技术（例如液相色谱）结合使用的事实（ LC）和离子迁移谱（IMS）。这篇评论描述了另一种较普遍与MS（/ MS）杂交的技术，即气相红外（IR）光谱技术，其增长的部分原因是可调谐IR激光器的发展和可访问性的提高。气相IR通常可以区分MS可能“盲目”存在的碳水化合物中普遍存在的细微异构体差异。也有具有更高光谱分辨率以及与分离方法（LC，IMS）杂交的低温气相红外光谱的实例。此外，碰撞诱导的离解（CID）产物离子也可以通过IR进行探测，这可能对反卷积光谱，辅助分析和建立光谱库很有帮助，从而为基于片段的方法分析聚糖提供了新的机会。