title: Sequence dependent fragmentation of peptides generated by MALDI quadrupole time-of-flight (MALDI Q-TOF) mass spectrometry and its implications for protein identification.
abstract: A study has been undertaken to evaluate the usefulness of MALDI Q-TOF data for protein identification. The comparison of MS data of protein digests obtained on a conventional MALDI TOF instrument to the MS data from the MALDI Q-TOF reveal peptide patterns with similar intensity ratios. However, comparison of MS/MS Q-TOF data produced by nanoelectrospray versus MALDI reveals striking differences. Peptide fragment ions obtained from doubly charged precursors produced by nanoelectrospray are mainly y-type ions with some b-ions in the lower mass range. In contrast, peptide fragment ions produced from the singly charged ions originating from the MALDI source are a mixture of y-, b- and a-ions accompanied by ions resulting from neutral loss of ammonia or water. The ratio and intensity of these fragment ions is found to be strongly sequence dependent for MALDI generated ions. The singly charged peptides generated by MALDI show a preferential cleavage of the C-terminal bond of acidic residues aspartic and glutamic acid and the N-terminal bond of proline. This preferential cleavage can be explained by the mobile proton model and is present in peptides that contain both arginine and an acidic amino acid. The MALDI Q-TOF MS/MS data of 24 out of 26 proteolytic peptides produced by trypsin or Asp-N digestions were successfully used for protein identification via database searching, thus indicating the general usefulness of the data for protein identification. De novo sequencing using a mixture of 160/18O water during digestion has been explored and de novo sequences for a number of peptides have been obtained.
authors.affiliation: Bioanalytical Sciences, CASS, GlaxoSmithKline, Harlow, Essex, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wattenberg
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Organ
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tyldesley
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bordoli
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Bateman
mesh_terms: D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase / Q000737:chemistry; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D016208:Databases, Factual; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009211:Myoglobin / Q000737:chemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011492:Protein Hydrolysates / Q000737:chemistry; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D014357:Trypsin / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D009211:Myoglobin; D010455:Peptides; D011492:Protein Hydrolysates; D011506:Proteins; D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase; D014357:Trypsin