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Towards understanding the formation of internal fragments generated by collisionally activated dissociation for top-down mass spectrometry

Journal Article · · Analytica Chimica Acta

Top-down mass spectrometry (TD-MS) generates fragment ions that returns information on the polypeptide amino acid sequence. In addition to terminal fragments, internal fragments that result from multiple cleavage events can also be formed. Traditionally, internal fragments are largely ignored due to a lack of available software to reliably assign them, mainly caused by a poor understanding of their formation mechanism. To accurately assign internal fragments, their formation process needs to be better understood. Here we applied a statistical method to compare fragmentation patterns of internal and terminal fragments of peptides and proteins generated by collisionally activated dissociation (CAD). Internal fragments share similar fragmentation propensities with terminal fragments (e.g., enhanced cleavages N-terminal to proline and C-terminal to acidic residues), suggesting that their formation follows conventional CAD pathways. Internal fragments should be generated by subsequent cleavages of terminal fragments and their formation can be explained by the well-known mobile proton model. Additionally, internal fragments can be coupled with terminal fragments to form complementary product ions that span the entire protein sequence. These enhance our understanding of internal fragment formation and can help improve sequencing algorithms to accurately assign internal fragments, which will ultimately lead to more efficient and comprehensive TD-MS analysis of proteins and proteoforms.

Research Organization:
University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Science Foundation (NSF); Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award
Grant/Contract Number:
FC02-02ER63421
OSTI ID:
1976775
Journal Information:
Analytica Chimica Acta, Journal Name: Analytica Chimica Acta Journal Issue: C Vol. 1194; ISSN 0003-2670
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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