The influence of electrostatic interactions on the detection of heme-globin complexes in ESI-MS

The heme-globin complexes of hemoglobin and myoglobin are investigated in positive-ion mode and negative-ion mode using a nano-ESI source coupled to a quadrupole ion trap MS and an orthogonal time-of-flight MS. The extent of dissociation of these noncovalent complexes upon collisional activation and thus their gas-phase stability is strongly dependent on the polarity of the ESI-MS experiment as well as on the charge of the prosthetic group (ferri-heme Fe3+-heme]+ vs. ferro-heme Fe2+-heme]+/-0). The results clearly point to the important role of electrostatic interactions on the gas phase stability of noncovalent complexes and therefore the ion signals observed in ESI-MS experiments.