Chromatographic and mass spectrometric characterization of the structures of the polypeptide antibiotics samarosporin and stilbellin and identity with emerimicin

The structural identity of the polypeptide antibiotics, samarosporin I(II) and stilbellin I(II) with emerimicin IV(III) has been established by thin-layer chromatography, quantitative amino acid analysis by ion-exchange chromatography, gas-liquid chromatography of the N-pentafluoropropionyl amino acid n-propyl esters and N,O-bis-pentafluoropropionyl phenylalaninol with quartz capillaries coated with the chiral stationary phase N-propionyl-L-valine-tert-butylamide, and determination of the relative molecular masses and sequence-specific fragments by field desorption fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry. The separation of closely related sequence analogues of the above polypeptides could b…