Hydrogen atom scrambling in selectively labeled anionic peptides upon collisional activation by MALDI tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry

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We have previously shown that peptide amide hydrogens undergo extensive intramolecular migration (i.e., complete hydrogen scrambling) upon collisional activation of protonated peptides (Jørgensen et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 2785-2793). The occurrence of hydrogen scrambling enforces severe limitations on the application of gas-phase fragmentation as a convenient method to obtain information about the site-specific deuterium uptake for proteins and peptides in solution. To investigate whether deprotonated peptides exhibit a lower level of scrambling relative to their protonated counterparts, we have now measured the level of hydrogen scrambling in a deprotonated, selectively labeled peptide using MALDI tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Our results conclusively show that hydrogen scrambling is prevalent in the deprotonated peptide upon collisional activation. The amide hydrogens ((1)H/(2)H) have migrated extensively in the anionic peptide, thereby erasing the original regioselective deuteration pattern obtained in solution.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Volume19
Issue number12
Pages (from-to)1719-25
Number of pages7
ISSN1044-0305
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008

    Research areas

  • Amino Acid Sequence, Anions, Crystallography, X-Ray, Humans, Hydrogen, Models, Molecular, Oligopeptides, Peptides, Protein Structure, Tertiary, Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator, Recombinant Proteins, Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization, Tandem Mass Spectrometry

ID: 40129835