Improved in-gel approaches to generate peptide maps of integral membrane proteins with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

This paper reports studies of in-gel digestion procedures to generate MALDI-MS peptide maps of integral membrane proteins. The methods were developed for the membrane domain of the mannitol permease of E. coli. In-gel digestion of this domain with trypsin, followed by extraction of the peptides from the gel, yields only 44% sequence coverage. Since lysines and arginines are seldomly found in the membrane-spanning regions, complete tryptic cleavage will generate large hydrophobic fragments, many of which are poorly soluble and most likely contribute to the low sequence coverage. Addition of the detergent octyl-beta-glucopyranoside (OBG), at 0.1% concentration, to the extraction solvent increases the total number of peptides detected to at least 85% of the total protein sequence. OBG facilitates the recovery of hydrophobic peptides when they are SpeedVac dried during the extraction procedure. Many of the newly recovered peptides are partial cleavage products. This seems to be advantageous since it generates hydrophobic fragments with a hydrophilic solubilizing part. In-gel CNBr cleavage resulted in 5-10-fold more intense spectra, 83% sequence coverage, fully cleaved fragments and no effect of OBG. In contrast to tryptic cleavage sites, the CNBr cleavage sites are found in transmembrane segments; cleavage at these sites generates smaller hydrophobic fragments, which are more soluble and do not need OBG. With the results of both cleavages, a complete sequence coverage of the membrane domain of the mannitol permease of E. coli is obtained without the necessity of using HPLC separation. The protocols were applied to two other integral membrane proteins, which confirmed the general applicability of CNBr cleavage and the observed effects of OBG in peptide recovery after tryptic digestion.     

Aquabromo(6‐carboxypyridine‐2‐carboxylato‐O,N,O′)mercury(II)

The title compound, [HgBr(C₇H₄NO₄)(H₂O)], was obtained by the reaction of an aqueous solution of mercury(II) bromide and pyridine‐2,6‐di­carboxylic acid (picolinic acid, dipicH₂). The shortest bond distances to Hg are Hg—Br 2.412 (1) Å and Hg—N 2.208 (5) Å; the corresponding N—Hg—Br angle of 169.6 (1)° corresponds to a slightly distorted linear coordination. There are also four longer Hg—O interactions, three from dipicH^? [2.425 (4) and 2.599 (4) Å within the asymmetric unit, and 2.837 (4) Å from a symmetry‐related mol­ecule] and one from the bonded water mol­ecule [2.634 (4) Å]. The effective coordination of Hg can thus be described as 2+4. The mol­ecules are connected to form double‐layer chains parallel to the y axis by strong O—H?O hydrogen bonds between carboxylic acid groups of neighbouring mol­ecules, and by weaker hydrogen bonds involving both H atoms of the water mol­ecule and the O atoms of the carboxylic acid groups.     

Coordination modes of 3-hydroxypicolinic acid: Synthesis and structural characterization of polymeric mercury(II) complexes

Novel mercury(II) compounds of 3-hydroxypicolinic acid (HpicOH; IUPAC name: 3-hydroxy-2-pyridinecarboxylic acid) were synthesized and characterized. HgCl(picOH) (1) and HgBr₂(HpicOH) (2) were obtained as reaction products from the reaction of the corresponding mercury(II) halide with HpicOH, irrespective of the molar ratio of the reactants. From the reaction of HpicOH and mercury(II) acetate, Hg(picOH)₂ (3) was obtained, while mercury(II) nitrate monohydrate gave the 1/1 solvate with water Hg(picOH)₂ · H₂O (3a). Infrared, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopic data were analyzed for complexes 1, 2 and 3. X-ray crystal structure analysis of 1 and 2 revealed their polymeric nature and different coordination modes of HpicOH. In 1 the deprotonated picolinic acid is N,O-chelating and bridging, while in 2 HpicOH is a O-monodentate weakly bound ligand. Compound 1 consists of HgCl(picOH) moieties with two linear covalent bonds, Hg–N 2.143(4) and Hg–Cl 2.298(1) Å, and four additional Hg?O contacts (2.460(3)–2.904(3) Å) in which both oxygen atoms from the carboxylic group are bridging and involved in coordination to three neighboring mercury atoms, thus forming infinite layers. The coordination of mercury is 2 + 4. 2 consists of {HgBr₂(HpicOH)} moieties, which are linked into chains by means of mercury to bromine secondary long range interactions. The coordination sphere of mercury can be described as irregular 2 + 3 formed by two covalently bonded bromine atoms (Hg–Br 2.277(1) and 2.366(1) Å), two bridging bromine atoms (Hg?Br 3.309(1) and 3.247(1) Å) and by the HpicOH ligand attached to mercury in the zwitterionic form via the carboxylic oxygen atom (Hg?O 2.602(7) Å).