title: Detection of oligonucleotide gas-phase conformers: H/D exchange and ion mobility as complementary techniques.
abstract: Gas-phase hydrogen/deuterium exchange of small oligonucleotides (dTG, dC(6) and C(6)) with CD(3)OD was performed in the second hexapole of a Fourier transform ion-cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer. Ion activation experiments were conducted by accelerating the ions at the entrance of the H/D exchange cell under conditions promoting exclusively collisional isomerization. These experiments allowed us to assess the presence of several conformers, and to probe the height of the isomerization barrier separating these conformers. Ion mobility experiments were also performed. Their results were consistent with the H/D exchange data. A model accounting for the competing isomerization and H/D exchange reactions is proposed. Comparing the ion acceleration experiments for H/D exchange and for ion mobility reveals that the most compact conformer displays the fastest H/D exchange. This observation shows that H/D exchange and ion mobility provide us with complementary information because hydrogen accessibility and macromolecule compactness are not univocally associated.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. dbalbeur@ulg.ac.be
authors.forename: Dorothée
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Balbeur
authors.forename: Joëlle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Widart
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leyh
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cravello
authors.forename: Edwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Pauw
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D041961:Deuterium Exchange Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D009841:Oligonucleotides