An integrated procedure of selective injection, sample stacking and fractionation of phosphopeptides for MALDI MS analysis

Protein phosphorylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications (PTM), however, the detection of phosphorylation in proteins using mass spectrometry (MS) remains challenging. This is because many phosphorylated proteins are only present in low abundance, and the ionization of the phosphorylated components in MS is very inefficient compared to the non-phosphorylated counterparts. Recently, we have reported a selective injection technique that can separate phosphopeptides from non-phosphorylated peptides due to the differences in their isoelectric points (pI) [1]. Phosphorylated peptides from α-casein were clearly observed at low femtomole level using MALDI MS. In this work, further developments on selective injection of phosphopeptides are presented to enhance its capability in handling higher sample complexity. The approach is to integrate selective injection with a sample stacking technique used in capillary electrophoresis to enrich the sample concentration, followed by electrophoresis to fractionate the components in preparation for MALDI MS analysis. The effectiveness of the selective injection and stacking was evaluated quantitatively using a synthetic phosphopeptide as sample, with an enrichment factor of up to 600 being recorded. Next, a tryptic digest of α-casein was used to evaluate the separation and fractionation of peptides for MALDI MS analysis. The elution order of phosphopeptides essentially followed the order of decreasing number of phosphates on the peptides. Finally, to illustrate the applicability, the integrated procedure was applied to evaluate the phosphorylation of a highly phosphorylated protein, osteopontin. Up to 41 phosphopeptides were observed, which allowed us to examine the phosphorylation of all 29 possible sites previously reported [2]. A high level of heterogeneity in the phosphorylation of OPN was evident by the multiple-forms of variable phosphorylation detected for a large number of peptides.     

Neutron diffraction and theoretical DFT studies of two dimensional molecular-based magnet K2[Mn(H2O)2]3[Mo(CN)7]2.6H2O

Exchange mechanisms and magnetic structure in the two-dimensional cyano-bridged molecule-based magnet K2[Mn(H2O)2]3[Mo(CN)7]2.6H2O have been investigated by a combination of neutron diffraction studies on both single crystal and powder samples and theoretical DFT calculations. The experimental spin density has been deduced from a new refinement of previously obtained polarized neutron diffraction (PND) data which was collected in the ordered magnetic state at 4 K under a saturation field of 3 T performed in the C2/c space group, determined by an accurate re-evaluation of the X-ray structure. Positive spin populations were observed on the two manganese sites, and negative spin populations were observed on the molybdenum site, which provides evidence of antiferromagnetic Mo3+-Mn2+ exchange interactions through the cyano bridge. The experimental data have been compared to the results of DFT calculations. Moreover, theoretical studies reveal the predominance of the spin polarization mechanism in the Mo-C-N-Mn sequence, with the antiferromagnetic nature of the interaction being due to the overlap between the magnetic orbitals relative to manganese and molybdenum in the cyano bridging region. The magnetic structure of K2[Mn(H2O)2]3[Mo(CN)7]2.6H2O has been solved at low temperature in zero field by powder neutron diffraction measurements. The structure was found to be ferrimagnetic where the manganese and molybdenum spins are aligned along the axis in opposite directions.     

The sodium ion affinities of simple Di-, Tri-, and tetrapeptides

The sodium ion affinities (binding energies) of nineteen peptides containing 2-4 residues have been determined by experimental and computational approaches. Na(+)-bound heterodimers with amino acid and peptide ligands (Pep(1), Pep(2)) were produced by electrospray ionization. The dissociations of these Pep(1)-Na(+)-Pep(2) ions to Pep(1)-Na(+) and Pep(2)-Na(+) were examined by collisionally activated dissociation to construct a ladder of relative affinities via the kinetic method. The accuracy of this ladder was subsequently ascertained by experiments using several excitation energies for four peptide pairs. The relative scale was converted to absolute affinities by anchoring the relative values to the known Na(+) affinity of GlyGly. The Na(+) affinities of AlaAla, HisGly, GlyHis, GlyGlyGly, AlaAlaAla, GlyGlyGlyGly, and AlaAlaAlaAla were also calculated at the MP2(full)/6-311 + G(2d,2p) level of ab initio theory using geometries that were optimized at the MP2(full)/6-31G(d) level for AlaAla or HF/6-31G(d) level for the other peptides; the resulting values agree well with experimental Na(+) affinities. Increasing the peptide size is found to dramatically augment the Na(+) binding energy. The calculations show that in nearly all cases, all available carbonyl oxygens are sodium binding sites in the most stable structures. Whenever side chains are available, as in HisGly and GlyHis, specific additional binding sites are provided to the cation. Oligoglycines and oligoalanines have similar binding modes for the di- and tripeptides, but differ significantly for the tetrapeptides: while the lowest energy structure of GlyGlyGlyGly-Na(+) has the peptide folded around the ion with all four carbonyl oxygens in close contact with Na(+), that of AlaAlaAlaAla-Na(+) involves a pseudo-cyclic peptide in which the C and N termini interact via hydrogen bonding, while Na(+) sits on top of the oxygens of three nearly parallel C=O bonds.     

Electron capture in charge-tagged peptides. Evidence for the role of excited electronic states

Electron capture dissociation (ECD) was studied with doubly charged dipeptide ions that were tagged with fixed-charge tris-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)phosphonium-methylenecarboxamido (TMPP-ac) groups. Dipeptides GK, KG, AK, KA, and GR were each selectively tagged with one TMPP-ac group at the N-terminal amino group while the other charge was introduced by protonation at the lysine or arginine side-chain groups to give (TMPP-ac-peptide + H)(2+) ions by electrospray ionization. Doubly tagged peptide derivatives were also prepared from GK, KG, AK, and KA in which the fixed-charge TMPP-ac groups were attached to the N-terminal and lysine side-chain amino groups to give (TMPP-ac-peptide-ac-TMPP)(2+) dications by electrospray. ECD of (TMPP-ac-peptide + H)(2+) resulted in 72% to 84% conversion to singly charged dissociation products while no intact charge-reduced (TMPP-ac-dipeptide + H)(+) ions were detected. The dissociations involved loss of H, formation of (TMPP + H)(+), and N-C(alpha) bond cleavages giving TMPP-CH(2)CONH(2)(+) (c(0)) and c(1) fragments. In contrast, ECD of (TMPP-ac-peptide-ac-TMPP)(2+) resulted in 31% to 40% conversion to dissociation products due to loss of neutral TMPP molecules and 2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl radicals. No peptide backbone cleavages were observed for the doubly tagged peptide ions. Ab initio and density functional theory calculations for (Ph(3)P-ac-GK + H)(2+) and (H(3)P-ac-GK + H)(2+) analogs indicated that the doubly charged ions contained the lysine side-chain NH(3)(+) group internally solvated by the COOH group. The distance between the charge-carrying phosphonium and ammonium atoms was calculated to be 13.1-13.2 A in the most stable dication conformers. The intrinsic recombination energies of the TMPP(+)-ac and (GK + H)(+) moieties, 2.7 and 3.15 eV, respectively, indicated that upon electron capture the ground electronic states of the (TMPP-ac-peptide + H)(+*) ions retained the charge in the TMPP group. Ground electronic state (TMPP-ac-GK + H)(+*) ions were calculated to spontaneously isomerize by lysine H-atom transfer to the COOH group to form dihydroxycarbinyl radical intermediates with the retention of the charged TMPP group. These can trigger cleavages of the adjacent N-C(alpha) bonds to give rise to the c(1) fragment ions. However, the calculated transition-state energies for GK and GGK models suggested that the ground-state potential energy surface was not favorable for the formation of the abundant c(0) fragment ions. This pointed to the involvement of excited electronic states according to the Utah-Washington mechanism of ECD.     

Protein desolvation in UV matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)

We describe experiments in MALDI-TOF and MALDI-TOF-TOF showing that the ejection of protein-matrix cluster ions and their partial decay in the source occur in MALDI. The use of radial beam deflection and small size detector in linear mode allows detection of ions with higher time-of-flight and kinetic energy deficit. MALDI-TOF-TOF experiments were carried out by selecting chemical noise ions at m/z higher than that of a free peptide ion. Whatever the selected m/z (up to m/z 300) the molecular peptide ion appeared as the main fragment. The production of protein-matrix clusters and their partial decay in the source was found to increase with the size of the protein (MW from 1000 to 150,000 u), although it decreases with increasing charge state. These effects were observed for different matrices (HCCA and SA) and in a large laser fluence range. Experimental results and calculation highlight that a continuous decay of protein-matrix cluster ions occurs in the source. This decay-desolvation process can account for the high-mass tailing and peak shifting as well as the strong noise/background in the mass spectra of proteins.     

Optical isomers of N,N'-bis(1-phenylethyl)-2,6-pyridinedicarboxamide coordinated to europium(III) ions as reliable circularly polarized luminescence calibration standards

The synthesis of two optical isomers of N,N'-bis(1-phenylethyl)-2,6-pyridinedicarboxamide and the constant circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) activity of their acetonitrile trivalent europium complex solutions over a long period of time open new perspectives for performing accurate routine CPL calibration tests at low cost.     

Accurate heteronuclear J-coupling measurements in dilute spin systems using the multiple-quantum filtered J-resolved experiment

A new solid-state MAS NMR experiment is proposed to accurately measure heteronuclear (19)F-(207)Pb J-coupling constants, even though these couplings are not visible on high speed (19)F 1D MAS spectra; in particular, we demonstrate that the J-resolved experiment combined with scalar multiple-quantum filtering considerably improves the resolution of J-multiplet patterns for dilute spin systems.     

Structure and DNA cleavage properties of two copper(II) complexes of the pyridine-pyrazole-containing ligands mbpzbpy and Hmpzbpya

The DNA-cleavage properties of the two copper(II) complexes, [Cu(mbpzbpy)Br(2)](H(2)O)(2.5) (1) and [Cu(mpzbpya)Cl](CH(3)OH) (2), obtained from the ligands 6,6'-bis(3,5-dimethyl-N-pyrazolmethyl)-2,2'-bipyridine) (mbpzbpy) and 6'-(3,5-dimethyl-N-pyrazolmethyl)-2,2'-bipyridine-6-carboxylic acid) (Hmpzbpya), respectively, are reported. Upon coordination to Cu(II) chloride in methanol, one arm of the ligand mbpzbpy is hydrolyzed to form mpzbpya. Under the same experimental conditions, the reaction of mbpzbpy with CuBr(2) does not lead to ligand hydrolysis. The ligand mpzbpya is coordinated to a copper(ii) ion generating a CuN(3)OCl chromophore, resulting in a distorted square-pyramidal environment, whereas with the N(4) mbpzbpy ligand, the Cu(II) ion is four-coordinated in a distorted square planar geometry. Both complexes promote the oxidative DNA cleavage of phiX174 phage DNA in the absence of reductant. The oxidative nature of the DNA cleavage reaction has been confirmed by religation and cell-transformation experiments. Studies using standard radical scavengers suggest the involvement of hydroxyl radicals in the oxidative cleavage of DNA. Although both compounds do convert form I (supercoiled) DNA to form II (nicked, relaxed form), only complex 1 is able to produce small amounts of form III (linearized DNA). This observation may be explained either by the attack of the copper(ii) complexes to only one single strand of DNA, or by a single cleavage event. Statistical analysis of relative DNA quantities present after the treatment with both copper(ii) complexes supports a random mode of DNA cleavage.     

Redox-modulated recognition of tetrazines using thioureas

Reduced 1,2,4,5-tetrazines serve as two-point hydrogen-bonding acceptors for thiourea. This host-guest system does not exhibit significant binding in the neutral state, making the complex an electrochemical "on/off" switch.     

High-precision determination of 18O/16O ratios of silver phosphate by EA-pyrolysis-IRMS continuous flow technique

A high-precision, and rapid on-line method for oxygen isotope analysis of silver phosphate is presented. The technique uses high-temperature elemental analyzer (EA)-pyrolysis interfaced in continuous flow (CF) mode to an isotopic ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS). Calibration curves were generated by synthesizing silver phosphate with a 13 per thousand spread in delta(18)O values. Calibration materials were obtained by reacting dissolved potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH(2)PO(4)) with water samples of various oxygen isotope compositions at 373 K. Validity of the method was tested by comparing the on-line results with those obtained by classical off-line sample preparation and dual inlet isotope measurement. In addition, silver phosphate precipitates were prepared from a collection of biogenic apatites with known delta(18)O values ranging from 12.8 to 29.9 per thousand (V-SMOW). Reproducibility of +/- 0.2 per thousand was obtained by the EA-Py-CF-IRMS method for sample sizes in the range 400-500 microg. Both natural and synthetic samples are remarkably well correlated with conventional (18)O/(16)O determinations. Silver phosphate is a very stable material and easy to degas and, thus, could be considered as a good candidate to become a reference material for the determination of (18)O/(16)O ratios of phosphate by high-temperature pyrolysis.