Hot Electron Capture Dissociation Research Articles

Analysis of Sialic Acid Linkage in N-Linked Glycopeptides Using Liquid Chromatography-Electron-Activated Dissociation Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry.

Herein, we report a novel liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry method to characterize N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac, Sa) linkage in N-linked glycans in glycopeptides with no sialic acid derivatization. First, we established a separation in reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a higher formic acid concentration in the mobile phases, which separated the N-glycopeptides depending on the Sa linkage. We also demonstrated a novel characterization method of Sa linkages in N-glycopeptides using electron-activated dissociation. We found that hot electron capture dissociation using an electron beam energy higher than 5 eV cleaved glycosidic bonds in glycopeptides, resulting in each glycosidic bond in the antennas being broken on both sides of the oxygen atom. Such glycosidic bond cleavage at the reducing end (C-type ion) showed the difference in Sa linkages between Sa-Gal, Gal-GlcNAc, and GlcNAc-Man. We proposed a rule to characterize the Sa linkages using the Sa-Gal products. This method was applied to N-glycopeptides in tryptic fetuin digest separated by an optimized reversed-phase HPLC. We successfully identified a number of isomeric glycoforms in the glycopeptides with different Sa links, whose peptide backbones were also simultaneously sequenced by hot ECD.

Localization of Multiple O-Linked Glycans Exhibited in Isomeric Glycopeptides by Hot Electron Capture Dissociation.

We describe a method to obtain a comprehensive profile of multiple glycosylations in glycopeptide isoforms. We detected a wide range of abundances of various O-glycoforms in isomeric glycopeptides using hot electron capture dissociation (hot ECD) in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. To capture low abundant glycosylated species, a prototype of a ZenoTOF 7600 system incorporating an efficient electron-activated dissociation device to perform hot ECD was operated in targeted or scheduled high-resolution multiple reaction monitoring workflows. In addition, Zeno trap pulsing was activated to enhance the sensitivity of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Sixty-nine O-glycopeptides of the long O-glycopeptides in tryptic bovine fetuin digest were obtained with a relative abundance range from 100 to 0.2%, which included sialylated glycans with Neu5Ac and Neu5Gc.

Peptide Sequence Influence on the Differentiation of Valine and Norvaline by Hot Electron Capture Dissociation.

Isomeric amino acid residues such as valine (Val) and norvaline (Nva) are common in recombinant proteins. The mis-incorporation of Nva for leucine (Leu) causes heterogeneity and in some cases even toxicity. Previous studies have shown that hot electron capture dissociation (HECD) is able to differentiate Val from Nva by producing diagnostic w ions on custom designed synthetic model peptides. To broaden the utilization of HECD in proteomic studies and to define the critical structural features, a thorough investigation was performed on representative peptides including specifically designed synthetic peptides as well as biological peptides bearing tryptic digest-like features and peptides with post-translational modifications. Experimental evidence confirmed that the formation of a w ion is directly dependent upon the presence of the corresponding z ion. The results suggested that a charge carrier residue at the C-terminus is promoting the formation of diagnostic w ions for Nva. Thus, peptides resulting from trypsin digestion, with arginine (Arg) or lysine (Lys) at the C-terminus, can be analyzed using the HECD method. Post-translational modification (PTM) such as phosphorylation did not prevent the generation of the requisite side chain fragmentation w ions. These results suggest the general applicability of HECD for unambiguous identification of Val and Nva especially in structure characterization of therapeutic proteins.

Differentiation of Norvaline and Valine in Peptides by Hot Electron Capture Dissociation.

During the production of recombinant proteins, misincorporation of Nva (norvaline) is common and causes heterogeneity or even toxicity. To characterize Nva and differentiate it from Val (Valine), a systematic study was conducted using hot electron capture dissociation (HECD) and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry. The thorough investigation of the fragmentation behaviors of a set of model peptides led us to reveal the characteristic/diagnostic fragment ions, w ions, which can be used to differentiate Val and Nva. However, when both Nva and Val were present in one peptide, the observation of interfering ions may mislead the interpretation. Interestingly, HECD also produced v ions, which have the same nominal mass as the M+1 isotope of the w ion and can only be determined by MS with ultrahigh mass resolution and high mass accuracy. The energy-dependent study of the v ion provided an unambiguous identification of Nva and Val since the v ion was generated only when Val was present, not Nva within the electron energy range we studied. In addition, an electron energy-dependent curve provided an overall picture on how w ions and v ions, as well as interfering ions, behaved as the electron energy increased from 1.5 to 14 eV. The results suggest that careful selection of electron energy during a HECD experiment is crucial for the unambiguous differentiation of Val and Nva.

Elucidating the sequence of intact bioactive peptides by using electron capture dissociation and hot electron capture dissociation in a linear radio‐frequency quadrupole ion trap

Electron capture dissociation (ECD) is useful tool for sequencing of peptides and proteins with post-translational modifications. To increase the sequence coverage for peptides and proteins, it is important to develop ECD device with high fragmentation efficiency. Sequence analysis of intact undigested bioactive peptides (3000-5000 Da) was performed by use of electron capture dissociation (rf-ECD) and collision-induced dissociation (CID) in a linear radio-frequency quadrupole ion trap that was coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. We applied rf-ECD, hot rf-ECD (rf-ECD with high electron energy), and CID for intact bioactive peptide ions of various charge states and evaluated the sequence coverage of their fragment spectra. Hot rf-ECD produced a higher number of c- and z-type fragment ions of modified peptide ions as electron energy increased in lower charged peptide ions, and sequence coverage greater than 80% was obtained compared with the CID case (40-80%). The result indicates that intact bioactive modified peptides (Ghrelin, ANP) were correctly identified by use of hot rf-ECD.

Glycopeptide Identification Using Liquid-Chromatography-Compatible Hot Electron Capture Dissociation in a Radio-Frequency-Quadrupole Ion Trap

We developed a liquid chromatography (LC) compatible electron capture dissociation (ECD) mass spectrometer for glycoproteomics, with which ECD and hot ECD (HECD) experiments can be flexibly switched by quickly changing the electron energy without further tuning of the mass spectrometer. Desialylated glycopeptides were dissociated well in both ECD and HECD experiments. For sialylated glycopeptides, on the other hand, ECD with electron energy higher than 4 eV showed significantly higher sequence coverage than that with an electron energy of 0.2 eV. A nano LC system was coupled to our ECD mass spectrometer to investigate N-linked glycopeptides from lysylendopeptidase (Lys-C) digests of human transferrin. ECD spectra at multiple electron energies of 0.2, 5.0, and 9.0 eV were obtained for each targeting precursor ion in a single LC injection. Glycopeptides with a sialylated bi-, tri-, or tetra-antennary complex N-glycan were identified with high sequence coverage by HECD. Glycopeptides with tri- or tetra-antennary N-glycans have seldom been analyzed by ECD or ETD before this report. We also found that a preferential dissociation of nonreducing termini of glycans in glycopeptides by ECD and HECD.

Hot Electron Capture Dissociation Distinguishes Leucine from Isoleucine in a Novel Hemoglobin Variant, Hb Askew, β54(D5)Val→Ile

Population migration has led to the global dispersion of human hemoglobinopathies and has precipitated a need for their identification. An effective mass spectrometry-based procedure involves analysis of the intact alpha- and beta-globin chains to determine their mass, followed by location of the variant amino acid residue by direct analysis of the enzymatically digested chains and low-energy collision induced dissociation of the variant peptide. Using this procedure, a variant was identified as either beta54Val-->Leu or beta54Val-->Ile, since the amino acids leucine and isoleucine cannot be distinguished using low-energy collisions. Here, we describe how hot electron capture dissociation on a Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer was used to distinguish isoleucine from leucine and identify the mutation as beta54(D5)Val-->Ile. This is a novel variant, and we have named it Hb Askew.

Generation of Peptide Radical Dications via Low-Energy Collision-Induced Dissociation of [Cu II(terpy)(M + H)] ·3+

The first example of the formation of hydrogen-deficient radical cations of the type [M + H](.2+) is demonstrated to occur through a one-electron-transfer mechanism upon low-energy collision-induced dissociation (CID) of gas-phase triply charged [Cu(II)(terpy)(M + H)](.3+) complex ions (where M is an angiotensin III or enkephalin derivative; terpy = 2,2':6',2''-terpyridine). The collision-induced dissociation of doubly charged [M + H](.2+) radical cations generates similar product ions to those prepared through hot electron capture dissociation (HECD). Isomeric isoleucine and leucine residues were distinguished by observing the mass differences between [z(n) + H](.+) and w(n)(+) ions (having the same residue number, n) of the Xle residues. The product ion spectrum of [z(n) + H](.+) reveals that the w(n)(+) ions are formed possibly from consecutive fragmentations of [z(n) + H](.+) ions. Although only the first few [M + H](.2+) species have been observed using this approach, these hydrogen-deficient radical cations produce fragment ions that have more structure-informative patterns and are very different from those formed during the low-energy tandem mass spectrometry of protonated peptides.

Reactions of Polypeptide Ions with Electrons in the Gas Phase

AbstractFor Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.

Secondary fragmentation of linear peptides in electron capture dissociation

Inspection of the electron capture dissociation (ECD) spectra of doubly-protonated peptides, Leu 4-Sar-Leu 3-Lys-OH, Leu 4-Ala-Leu 3-Lys-OH, Gly 4-Sar-Gly 3-Lys-NH 2 and Gly 3-Pro-Sar-Gly 3-Lys-NH 2, reveals extensive secondary fragmentation. In addition to w ions, entire, and in some cases multiple, cleavages of amino acid side chains from backbone fragments are observed. Extensive water loss from backbone fragments is observed for the glycine-rich peptides. For Leu 4-Ala-Leu 3-Lys, the preferred fragmentation channel is cleavage of the amide bond to produce b 7 and b 8 ions. ECD of Gly 3-Pro-Sar-Gly 3-Lys-NH 2 results in amine bond (c/z) cleavage in the proline residue accompanied by CC (or secondary NC) cleavage in the proline side chain. That fragmentation channel has not been observed previously. The peptides were also subjected to “hot” electron capture dissociation (HECD) and the resulting spectra differed markedly from those obtained under standard ECD conditions. In contrast to HECD, secondary fragmentation observed under standard ECD conditions cannot be attributed to excess energy arising from the kinetic energy of the electrons prior to capture. The results suggest that the fragmentation channels available following electron capture depend somewhat on the individual peptide structure and have mechanistic implications.

Secondary losses via gamma-lactam formation in hot electron capture dissociation: a missing link to complete de novo sequencing of proteins?

Differentiating between the isomeric isoleucine and leucine amino acid residues can be accomplished by a gas-phase fragmentation reaction in which an N-terminal radical site of a C-terminal fragment initiates formation of a five-membered ring with the beta-carbon in the adjacent residue.

Distinguishing of Ile/Leu amino acid residues in the PP3 protein by (hot) electron capture dissociation in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.

In hot electron capture dissociation (HECD), multiply protonated polypeptides fragment upon capturing approximately 11-eV electrons. The excess of energy upon the primary c, z* cleavage induces secondary fragmentation in z* fragments. The resultant w ions allow one to distinguish between the isomeric Ile and Leu residues. The analytical utility of HECD is evaluated using tryptic peptides from the bovine milk protein PP3 containing totally 135 amino acid residues. Using a formal procedure for Ile/Leu (Xle) residue assignment, the identities of 20 out of 25 Xle residues (80%) were determined. The identity of an additional two residues could be correctly guessed from the absence of the alternative w ions, and only two residues, for which neither expected nor alternative w ions were observed, remained unassigned. Reinspection of conventional ECD spectra also revealed the presence of Xle w ions, although at lower abundances, with 44% of all Xle residues distinguished. Using a dispenser cathode as an electron source, identification of four out of five Xle residues in a 2.7-kDa peptide was possible with one acquisition 2 s long, with identification of all five residues by averaging of five such acquisitions. Unlike the case of high-energy collision-induced dissociation, no d ions were observed in the HECD of tryptic peptides.

Reactions of polypeptide ions with electrons in the gas phase.

Reactions of electrons in the energy range below 70 eV with polypeptide cations and anions are reviewed, as well as their applications for the structural analysis of polypeptides. At very low energies (</= 0.1 eV), the major outcome is electron-capture dissociation (ECD) of S-S and backbone N-C(alpha) bonds, leading to c' and z. fragments. ECD is useful in sequencing and characterization of post-translational modifications (PTMs), because c', z. fragmentation is abundant and the fragments usually retain labile groups. Electron capture at higher energies (3-13 eV) induces secondary fragmentation in radical z. fragments; this hot ECD (HECD) allows one to distinguish between the isomeric leucine and isoleucine residues. If a hot electron is not captured, then the induced electronic excitation converts internally into vibrational energy, resulting in fragmentation of the C(O)bond;N backbone bond (so-called EIEIO process). Above 9-10 eV, further ionization of n-charged cations occurs. If the formed (n + 1)+. cations capture electrons, then the C(alpha)bond;C backbone bond is usually broken. For anions that collide with approximately 20 eV electrons, the ejection of an electron leads to the creation of a radical positive charge (hole) that recombines internally with a negative charge. Such recombination leads to various backbone bond cleavages. This electron-detachment dissociation (EDD) is analogous to ECD for negative ions.

Electronic Excitation Gives Informative Fragmentation of Polypeptide Cations and Anions

A Fourier transform mass spectrometer is a versatile instrument with a range of available fragmentation techniques. Comparison of polypeptide fragmentation patterns revealed that the techniques involving electronic excitation, such as hot-electron-capture dissociation (HECD) and electron-detachment dissociation (EDD), are even more informative than vibrational excitation (VE) techniques such as collisional activation. For dications of the peptide KIMHASELMANN, 11 eV HECD cleaved all inter-residue links in at least two places, with up to five fragments characterizing each link. For dianions of the same molecule, VE produced only one backbone cleavage whereas EDD gave ten, including five internal cleavage fragments. This is consistent with the general postulate that homogeneous electronic excitation yields more types of cleavage than near-equilibrium processes such as VE.

Dissociative capture of hot (3–13 eV) electrons by polypeptide polycations: an efficient process accompanied by secondary fragmentation

Beside the known maximum of electron capture dissociation (ECD) of gas-phase polypeptide polycations at zero electron energy, a broad local maximum is found around 10 eV. This maximum is due to electronic excitation prior to electron capture, as in dissociative recombination of small cations. In the novel hot electron capture dissociation (HECD) regime, not only N–C α bonds are cleaved as in ECD, but secondary fragmentation is also induced due to the excess energy. Beneficially, this fragmentation includes abundant losses of CH( CH 3) 2 from leucine and CH 2 CH 3 from isoleucine residues terminal to the cleavage site, which allows for distinguishing between these two isomeric residues.