title: Fragmentation reactions of deprotonated peptides containing proline. The proline effect.
abstract: The collision-induced dissociation (CID) fragmentation reactions of a variety of deprotonated peptides containing proline have been studied in detail using MS(2) and MS(3) experiments, deuterium labelling and accurate mass measurements when necessary. The [M--H--CO(2)](-) (a(2)) ion derived from H-Pro-Xxx-OH dipeptides shows an unusual fragmentation involving loss of C(2)H(4); this fragmentation reaction is not observed for larger peptides. The primary fragmentation reactions of deprotonated tripeptides with an N-terminal proline are formation of a(3) and y(1) ions. When proline is in the central position of tripeptides, a(3), y(2) and y(1) ions are the primary fragmentation products of [M--H](-), while when the proline is in the C-terminal position, a(3)and y(1) ions are the major primary products. In the latter case, the a(3) ion fragments primarily to the ''b(2) ion; further evidence is presented that the ''b(2) ions have a deprotonated oxazolone structure. Larger deprotonated peptides having at least two amino acid residues N-terminal to proline show a distinct preference for cleavage of the amide bond N-terminal to proline to form, mainly, the appropriate y ion. This proline effect is compared and contrasted with the similar proline effect observed in the fragmentation of protonated peptides containing proline.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. aharriso@chem.utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Alex G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Alex B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011392:Proline / Q000737:chemistry*; D011522:Protons; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D011522:Protons; D011392:Proline