Cuttlefish sperm protamines. 2. Mass spectrometry of protamines and related peptides.
The sequence of very basic proteins such as protamines (more than 50% arginines) and related peptides has been determined using mass spectrometry in conjunction with Edman degradation. The capabilities of three mass spectrometric (MS) techniques [fast-atom-bombardment (FAB), 252Cf plasma desorption (252CFPD) and electrospray (ES)] have been evaluated on stallion protamine 1, cuttlefish protamine, and the corresponding cleavage peptides. In contrast to FAB-MS and 252Cf PD-MS, ES-MS made possible an easy determination of the molecular mass of the intact protamines (approximately 8 kDa). With ES-MS about 0.2 nmol was sufficient to yield a mass measurement with an accuracy of 0.05%. On peptides smaller than 3500 Da, both FAB-MS and 252Cf PD-MS allowed mass measurements with an accuracy of 0.1%. 252Cf PD-MS appeared more sensitive than FAB-MS by about a factor of 10. FAB-MS is nevertheless particularly interesting since in most cases it produced spectra with intense A-type fragmentation ions which provided reliable primary structure information.
Schindler
P
P
Laboratoire de Chimie Organique des Substances Naturelles, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique N.31, Strasbourg, France.
Bitsch
F
F
Klarskov
K
K
Roepstorff
P
P
Briand
G
G
Wouters-Tyrou
D
D
Sautière
P
P
Van Dorsselaer
A
A
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008974:Mollusca; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry; D011479:Protamines / Q000737:chemistry*; D016339:Spectrometry, Mass, Fast Atom Bombardment / Q000379:methods; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000737:chemistry*
D010446:Peptide Fragments; D011479:Protamines