Both the matrix selected and the laser fluence play important roles in MALDI-quadrupole/ time of flight (QqTOF) fragmentation processes. "Hot" matrices, such as ␣-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (HCCA), can increase fragmentation in MS spectra. Higher laser fluence also increases fragmentation. Typical peptide fragment ions observed in the QqTOF are a, b, and y ion series, which resemble low-energy CID product ions. This fragmentation may occur in the high-pressure region before the first mass-analyzing quadrupole. Fragment ions can be selected by the first quadrupole (Q1), and further sequenced by conventional MS/MS. This allows pseudo-MS 3 experiments to be performed.For peptides of higher molecular weight, pseudo-MS 3 can extend the mass range beyond what is usually accessible for sequencing, by allowing one to sequence a fragment ion of lower molecular weight instead of the full-length peptide. Peptides that predominantly show a single product ion after MS/MS yield improved sequence information when this technique is applied. This method was applied to the analysis of an in vitro phosphorylated peptide, where the intact enzymatically-generated peptide showed poor dissociation via MS/MS. Sequencing a fragment ion from the phosphopeptide enabled the phosphorylation site to be unambiguously determined. A fter the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) technique was first developed [1][2][3][4][5], there were extensive studies on the selection of matrices optimized for various types of lasers [6 -9]. Although most researchers are now primarily using 337 nm nitrogen lasers and only a few selected matrices, there has been much discussion of MALDI matrices with regard to mechanisms of ion formation [10 -24].In-source decay (ISD [25,26]) and post-source decay (PSD [27]) in MALDI/TOF-MS have been studied for the purpose of determining the mechanism of MALDI ionization, and have led to the classification of matrices such as ␣-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (HCCA) and 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) as "hot" or "cold" based originally on the amount of glycoprotein fragmentation they induce [28].The differences in fragmentation observed with various matrices have been attributed to differences in initial velocities of the ions generated [29 -31], with higher initial velocities leading to cooling and less fragmentation. It has been noted that, for a given matrix, all analyte ions below 25 kDa appear to have the same initial velocity irrespective of mass, but the initial velocity depends on the matrix [31]. An early hypothesis that the internal energy and velocity of both analyte and matrix are a function of matrix sublimation temperatures has found empirical support [32]. Zenobi and co-workers found, however, that the internal energy distributions of analyte ions did not correlate with matrix sublimation temperatures, but instead depended on gas-phase proton transfer reactions [20,21,23]. Increasing laser fluence has been shown to increase analyte ion dissociation via in-source decay (ISD) [33][34][35][36][37][38...