Glycomics represents one of the last frontiers and most challenging in omic analysis. Glycosylation occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi organelle and its control is neither well-understood nor predictable based on proteomic or genomic analysis. One of the most structurally complex classes of glycoconjugates is the proteoglycans (PGs) and their glycosaminoglycan (GAG) side chains. Previously, our laboratory solved the structure of the chondroitin sulfate chain of the bikunin PG. The current study examines the much more complex structure of the dermatan sulfate GAG chain of decorin PG. By utilizing sophisticated separation methods followed by compositional analysis, domain mapping, and tandem mass spectrometry coupled with analysis by a modified genetic algorithm approach, the structural motif for the decorin dermatan sulfate chain was determined. This represents the second example of a GAG with a prominent structural motif, suggesting that the structural variability of this class of glycoconjugates is somewhat simpler than had been expected.

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) regulate several cellular developmental processes by interacting with cell surface heparan proteoglycans and transmembrane cell surface receptors (FGFR). The interaction of FGF with heparan sulfate (HS) is known to induce protein oligomerization, increase the affinity of FGF towards its receptor FGFR, promoting the formation of the HS–FGF–FGFR signaling complex. Although the role of HS in the signaling pathways is well recognized, the details of FGF oligomerization and formation of the ternary signaling complex are still not clear, with several conflicting models proposed in literature. Here, we examine the effect of size and sulfation pattern of HS upon FGF1 oligomerization, binding stoichiometry and conformational stability, through a combination of ion mobility (IM) and theoretical modeling approaches. Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IMMS) of FGF1 in the presence of several HS fragments ranging from tetrasaccharide (dp4) to dodecasaccharide (dp12) in length was performed. A comparison of the binding stoichiometry of variably sulfated dp4 HS to FGF1 confirmed the significance of the previously known high-affinity binding motif in FGF1 dimerization, and demonstrated that certain tetrasaccharide-length fragments are also capable of inducing dimerization of FGF1. The degree of oligomerization was found to increase in the presence of dp12 HS, and a general lack of specificity for longer HS was observed. Additionally, collision cross-sections (CCSs) of several FGF1–HS complexes were calculated, and were found to be in close agreement with experimental results. Based on the (CCSs) a number of plausible binding modes of 2:1 and 3:1 FGF1–HS are proposed.

We validate the utility of ion mobility to measure protein conformational changes induced by the binding of glycosaminoglycan ligands, using the well characterized system of Antithrombin III (ATIII) and Arixtra, a pharmaceutical agent with heparin (Hp) activity. Heparin has been used as a therapeutic anticoagulant drug for several decades through its interaction with ATIII, a serine protease inhibitor that plays a central role in the blood coagulation cascade. This interaction induces conformational changes within ATIII that dramatically enhance the ATIII-mediated inhibition rate. Arixtra is the smallest synthetic Hp containing the specific pentasaccharide sequence required to bind with ATIII. Here we report the first travelling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry (TWIMS) investigation of the conformational changes in ATIII induced by its interaction with Arixtra. Native electrospray ionization mass spectrometry allowed the gentle transfer of the native topology of ATIII and ATIII–Arixtra complex. IM measurements of ATIII and ATIII–Arixtra complex showed a single structure, with well-defined collisional cross section (CCS) values. An average 3.6% increase in CCS of ATIII occurred as a result of its interaction with Arixtra, which agrees closely with the theoretical estimation of the change in CCS based on protein crystal structures. A comparison of the binding behavior of ATIII under both denaturing and non-denaturing conditions confirmed the significance of a folded tertiary structure of ATIII for its biological activity. A Hp oligosaccharide whose structure is similar to Arixtra but missing the 3-O sulfo group on the central glucosamine residue showed a dramatic decrease in binding affinity towards ATIII, but no change in the mobility behavior of the complex, consistent with prior studies that suggested that 3-O sulfation affects the equilibrium constant for binding to ATIII, but not the mode of interaction. In contrast, nonspecific binding by a Hp tetrasaccharide showed more complex mobility behavior, suggesting more promiscuous interactions with ATIII. The effect of collisional activation of ATIII and ATIII–Arixtra complex were also assessed, revealing that the binding of Arixtra provided ATIII with additional stability against unfolding. Overall, our results validate the capability of TWIMS to retain the significant features of the solution structure of a protein–carbohydrate complex so that it can be used to study protein conformational changes induced by the binding of glycosaminoglycan ligands.

•A new procedure is described that allows image–charge to be calculated for FT-ICR analyzer cells of arbitrary geometry.•This procedure has been tested by comparison to earlier methods of image–charge calculation, and been found to be accurate and fast.•Explicit calculations of image–charge in particle-in-cell (PIC) calculations can double-count the effect of image–charge if one does not remove the image–charge from the surface of the PIC workspace.•In a Tolmachev design shimmed FT-ICR analyzer cell, the effect of image–charge on observed frequency for ions is counteracted by the effect of anharmonic residual electric field, for moderate populations of ions, giving even better mass accuracy than in the ideal harmonic trapping electric field.As improvements in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass analyzers continue to provide higher resolving power and better mass accuracy, it becomes important to consider small perturbations to the observed frequency such as those resulting from the interaction between an ion and its image–charge. Multi-particle simulations can help in understanding these forces. Previously, particle-in-cell simulations have used a basic implementation of the image–charge force on the flat edges of the workspace. In the case of cylindrical cells, however, this does not provide an accurate representation of these forces. Until recently, the calculation of image–charge on curved electrodes has been impractical due to the high computational cost, but this cost can be mitigated by parallelizing the calculations on general purpose graphic processing units (GPUs). In this paper, a new parallelizable charge collocation based method for including high resolution image–charge effects on surfaces of arbitrary geometry is presented. This method is then used to explore the effects of image–charge interactions on observed cyclotron frequency in cylindrical ICR analyzer cells by simulating the trajectories of populations of Cs+ ranging from 20,000 ions to 1,000,000 ions.

High-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) is shown to be capable of resolving isomeric and isobaric glycosaminoglycan negative ions and to have great utility for the analysis of this class of molecules when combined with Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) and tandem mass spectrometry. Electron detachment dissociation (EDD) and other ion activation methods for tandem mass spectrometry can be used to determine the sites of labile sulfate modifications and for assigning the stereochemistry of hexuronic acid residues of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). However, mixtures with overlapping mass-to-charge values present a challenge, as their precursor species cannot be resolved by a mass analyzer prior to ion activation. FAIMS is shown to resolve two types of mass-to-charge overlaps. A mixture of chondroitin sulfate A (CSA) oligomers with 4–10 saccharides units produces ions of a single mass-to-charge by electrospray ionization, as the charge state increases in direct proportion to the degree of polymerization for these sulfated carbohydrates. FAIMS is shown to resolve the overlapping charge. A more challenging type of mass-to-charge overlap occurs for mixtures of diastereomers. FAIMS is shown to separate two sets of epimeric GAG tetramers. For the epimer pairs, the complexity of the separation is reduced when the reducing end is alkylated, suggesting that anomers are also resolved by FAIMS. The resolved components were activated by EDD and the fragment ions were analyzed by FTICR-MS. The resulting tandem mass spectra were able to distinguish the two epimers from each other.

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are a class of biologically important molecules, and their structural analysis is the target of considerable research effort. Advances in tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) have recently enabled the structural characterization of several classes of GAGs; however, the highly sulfated GAGs, such as heparins, have remained a relatively intractable class due their tendency to lose SO3 during MS/MS, producing few sequence-informative fragment ions. The present work demonstrates for the first time the complete structural characterization of the highly sulfated heparin-based drug Arixtra. This was achieved by Na+/H+ exchange to create a more ionized species that was stable against SO3 loss, and that produced complete sets of both glycosidic and cross-ring fragment ions. MS/MS enables the complete structural determination of Arixtra, including the stereochemistry of its uronic acid residues, and suggests an approach for solving the structure of more complex, highly sulfated heparin-based drugs.

Space-charge perturbs ion motion and affects mass accuracy in ion trapping mass spectrometers. In Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS), both ion–ion and ion–image charge interactions have been examined by experiments and by multiparticle ion simulations using the particle-in-cell (PIC) approach, and the magnitude of observed frequency shifts as a function of ion number agrees with theoretical models. Frequency shifts due to ion–ion interactions have generally been treated in a time-integrated fashion, that is, for the duration of the transient signal. Aizikov and O’Connor have experimentally shown that there is a time-dependence for such interactions, with a periodicity that correlates to the beat period between isotope peaks. Here, we investigate such interactions using PIC simulations and the filter diagonalization method (FDM) for obtaining frequencies from very short durations of the transient. Periodic decreases in observed frequency correlate with ion clouds of isotope peaks coming into phase in their cyclotron orbit. A similar phenomenon is observed in the simulations of ion motion in an Orbitrap mass analyzer, corresponding to the axial motion of isotope groupings moving in and out of phase.Graphical abstractHighlights► Application of filter diagonalization for harmonic inversion of simulated data. ► Simulation of phase dependent frequency shifts in FT-ICR MS and orbital FTMS. ► Analysis of space charge induced frequency shifts in simple and complex systems.

Electron detachment dissociation (EDD) has previously provided stereo-specific product ions that allow for the assignment of the acidic C-5stereochemistry in heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), but application of the same methodology to an epimer pair in the chondroitin sulfate glycoform class does not provide the same result. A series of experiments have been conducted in which glycosaminoglycan precursor ions are independently activated by electron detachment dissociation (EDD), electron induced dissociation (EID), and negative electron transfer dissociation (NETD) to assign the stereochemistry in chondroitin sulfate (CS) epimers and investigate the mechanisms for product ion formation during EDD in CS glycoforms. This approach allows for the assignment of electronic excitation products formed by EID and detachment products to radical pathways in NETD, both of which occur simultaneously during EDD. The uronic acid stereochemistry in electron detachment spectra produces intensity differences when assigned glycosidic and cross-ring cleavages are compared. The variations in the intensities of the doubly deprotonated 0,2X3 and Y3 ions have been shown to be indicative of CS-A/DS composition during the CID of binary mixtures. These ions can provide insight into the uronic acid composition of binary mixtures in EDD, but the relative abundances, although reproducible, are low compared with those in a CID spectrum acquired on an ion trap. The application of principal component analysis (PCA) presents a multivariate approach to determining the uronic acid stereochemistry spectra of these GAGs by taking advantage of the reproducible peak distributions produced by electron detachment.

Heparin glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) present the most difficult glycoform for analytical characterization due to high levels of sulfation and structural heterogeneity. Recent contamination of the clinical heparin supply and subsequent fatalities has highlighted the need for sensitive methodologies of analysis. In the last decade, tandem mass spectrometry has been increasingly applied for the analysis of GAGs, but developments in the characterization of highly sulfated compounds have been minimal due to the low number of cross-ring cleavages generated by threshold ion activation by collisional induced dissociation (CID). In the current work, electron detachment dissociation (EDD) and infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) are applied to a series of heparin tetrasaccharides. With both activation methods, abundant glycosidic and cross-ring cleavages are observed. The concept of Ionized Sulfate Criteria (ISC) is presented as a succinct method for describing the charge state, degree of ionization and sodium/proton exchange in the precursor ion. These factors contribute to the propensity for useful fragmentation during MS/MS measurements. Precursors with ISC values of 0 are studied here, and shown to yield adequate structural information from ion activation by EDD or IRMPD.Graphical abstractHighlights► Ionized Sulfate Criteria defined; succinctly describes the ionic nature of a GAG. ► Heparin oligosaccharides, the most complex GAGS, are analyzed both by EDD and IRMPD. ► Cross-ring cleavages and glycosidic bond dissociation are produced by EDD and IRMPD.

A mixture of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains from a plasma proteoglycan bikunin was fractionated using native, continuous-elution polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the resulting fractions were analyzed by electrospray ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry (ESI FTMS). Molecular mass analysis of the intact GAG afforded information about the length and composition of GAG chains in the mixture. Ambiguity in the interpretation of the intact GAG mass spectra was eliminated by conducting an additional experiment in which the GAG chains of known molecular mass were treated with a GAG-degrading enzyme, chondroitinase ABC, and the digestion products were analyzed by ESI FTMS. The plasma bikunin GAG chains consisted predominantly of odd number of saccharides, although few chains consisting of even number of saccharides were also detected. Majority of the analyzed chains were tetrasulfated or pentasulfated and comprised by 29–41 monosaccharides.Graphical abstractThe length and number of sulfo groups of intact glycosaminoglycan chains of a plasma proteoglycan bikunin are determined by ESI FTMS.Research highlights▶ Continuous-elution polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to purify bikunin proteoglycan. ▶ Electrospray ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry for intact bikunin glcosaminoglycan chains. ▶ Plasma bikunin GAG chains consisted predominantly of odd number of saccharides.

The structural characterization of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) carbohydrates by mass spectrometry has been a long-standing analytical challenge due to the inherent heterogeneity of these biomolecules, specifically polydispersity, variability in sulfation, and hexuronic acid stereochemistry. Recent advances in tandem mass spectrometry methods employing threshold and electron-based ion activation have resulted in the ability to determine the location of the labile sulfate modification as well as assign the stereochemistry of hexuronic acid residues. To facilitate the analysis of complex electron detachment dissociation (EDD) spectra, principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to differentiate the hexuronic acid stereochemistry of four synthetic GAG epimers whose EDD spectra are nearly identical upon visual inspection. For comparison, PCA is also applied to infrared multiphoton dissociation spectra (IRMPD) of the examined epimers. To assess the applicability of multivariate methods in GAG mixture analysis, PCA is utilized to identify the relative content of two epimers in a binary mixture.

Structural characterization of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) has been a challenge in the field of mass spectrometry, and the application of electron detachment dissociation (EDD) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) has shown great promise to GAG oligosaccharide characterization in a single tandem mass spectrometry experiment. In this work, we apply the technique of negative electron transfer dissociation (NETD) to GAGs on a commercial ion trap mass spectrometer. NETD of GAGs, using fluoranthene or xenon as the reagent gas, produces fragmentation very similar to previously observed EDD fragmentation. Using fluoranthene or xenon, both glycosidic and cross-ring cleavages are observed, as well as even- and odd-electron products. The loss of SO3 can be minimized and an increase in cross-ring cleavages is observed if a negatively charged carboxylate is present during NETD, which can be controlled by the charge state or the addition of sodium. NETD effectively dissociates GAGs up to eight saccharides in length, but the low resolution of the ion trap makes assigning product ions difficult. Similar to EDD, NETD is also able to distinguish the epimers iduronic acid from glucuronic acid in heparan sulfate tetrasaccharides and suggests that a radical intermediate plays an important role in distinguishing these epimers. These results demonstrate that NETD is effective at characterizing GAG oligosaccharides in a single tandem mass spectrometry experiment on a widely available mass spectrometry platform.

It has been previously observed that the measured frequency of ions in a Fourier transform mass spectrometry experiment depend upon the number of trapped ions, even for populations consisting exclusively of a single mass-to-charge. Since ions of the same mass-to-charge are thought not to exert a space-charge effect among themselves, the experimental observation of such frequency shifts raises questions about their origin. To determine the source of such experimentally observed frequency shifts, multiparticle ion trajectory simulations have been conducted on monoisotopic populations of Cs+ ranging from 102 ions to 106 ions. A close match to experimental behavior is observed. By probing the effect of ion number and orbital radius on the shift in the cyclotron frequency, it is shown that for a monoisotopic population of ions, the frequency shift is caused by the interaction of ions with their image-charge. The addition of ions of a second mass-to-charge to the simulation allows the comparison of the magnitude of the frequency shift resulting from space-charge (ion-ion) effects versus ion interactions with their image charge.

Offline high performance liquid chromatography combined with matrix assisted laser desorption and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (HPLC–MALDI–FTICR/MS) provides the means to rapidly analyze complex mixtures of peptides, such as those produced by proteolytic digestion of a proteome. This method is particularly useful for making quantitative measurements of changes in protein expression by using 15N-metabolic labeling. Proteolytic digestion of combined labeled and unlabeled proteomes produces complex mixtures with many mass overlaps when analyzed by HPLC–MALDI–FTICR/MS. A significant challenge to data analysis is the matching of pairs of peaks which represent an unlabeled peptide and its labeled counterpart. We have developed an algorithm and incorporated it into a computer program which significantly accelerates the interpretation of 15N-metabolic labeling data by automating the process of identifying unlabeled/labeled peak pairs. The algorithm takes advantage of the high resolution and mass accuracy of FTICR mass spectrometry. The algorithm is shown to be able to successfully identify the 15N/14N peptide pairs and calculate peptide relative abundance ratios in highly complex mixtures from the proteolytic digest of a whole organism protein extract.An automated procedure is presented for matching 15N-metabolically labeled peptides with their unlabeled counterparts in MALDI–FTICR mass spectra of a batch digested proteome.

The efficiency of conversion of precursor ions to observable products for electron detachment dissociation (EDD) was measured as a function of the key experimental parameters to determine their optimal values for the Fourier transform mass spectrometry analysis of anionic glycosaminoglycan carbohydrates. These parameters include electron current, electron energy, dispenser cathode heater current, electron beam duration, charge state of the precursor ion, oligomer length, and precursor ion number accumulated in an external radio frequency multipole trap. Precursor conversion is most efficient at an electron current of 15 μA, and decreases at higher and lower values. The conversion of precursor to product ions increases in efficiency as the electron pulse duration is increased. Together, these data suggest that a radially repulsive electric field is produced between the electron beam and negative ions during EDD which causes the reaction cross-section to decrease at higher values of electron current (>15 μA). Elevating the heater current of the dispenser cathode increases the electron flux, but also causes ion activation, presumably by blackbody infrared irradiation. An electronic circuit is described that allows the electron current produced by the dispenser cathode to be measured during an EDD or electron capture dissociation (ECD) experiment.

Stepwise-external calibration has previously been shown to produce sub part-per-million (ppm) mass accuracy for the MALDI-FTICR/MS analyses of peptides up to m/z 2500. The present work extends these results to ions up to m/z 4000. Mass measurement errors for ions of higher mass-to-charge are larger than for ions below m/z 2500 when using conventional chirp excitation to detect ions. Mass accuracy obtained by using stored waveform inverse Fourier transform (SWIFT) excitation was evaluated and compared with chirp excitation. Analysis of measurement errors reveals that SWIFT excitation provides smaller deviations from the calibration equation and better mass accuracy than chirp excitation for a wide mass range and for widely varying ion populations.

The structural characterization of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) oligosaccharides has been a long-standing challenge in the field of mass spectrometry. In this work, we present the application of electron detachment dissociation (EDD) Fourier transform mass spectrometry to the analysis of dermatan sulfate (DS) oligosaccharides up to 10 residues long. The EDD mass spectra of DS oligosaccharides were compared with their infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) mass spectra. EDD produces more abundant fragmentation than IRMPD with far less loss of SO3 from labile sulfate modifications. EDD cleaves all glycosidic bonds, yielding both conventional glycosidic bond fragmentation as well as satellite peaks resulting from the additional loss of 1 or 2 hydrogen atoms. EDD also yields more cross-ring fragmentation than IRMPD. For EDD, abundant cross-ring fragmentation in the form of A- and X-ions is observed, with 1,5Xn cleavages occurring for all IdoA residues and many of the GalNAc4S residues, except at the reducing and nonreducing ends. In contrast, IRMPD produces only A-type cross-ring fragmentation for long oligosaccharides (dp6–dp10). As all the structurally informative fragment ions observed by IRMPD appear as a subset of the peaks found in the EDD mass spectrum, EDD shows great potential for the characterization of GAG oligosaccharides using a single tandem mass spectrometry experiment.

Electron detachment dissociation (EDD) Fourier transform mass spectrometry has recently been shown to be a useful method for tandem mass spectrometry analysis of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). EDD produces abundant glycosidic and cross-ring fragmentations that are useful for localizing sites of sulfation in GAG oligosaccharides. Although EDD fragmentation can be used to characterize GAGs in a single tandem mass spectrometry experiment, SO3 loss accompanies many peaks and complicates the resulting mass spectra. In this work we demonstrate the ability to significantly decrease SO3 loss by selection of the proper ionized state of GAG precursor ions. When the degree of ionization is greater than the number of sulfate groups in an oligosaccharide, a significant reduction in SO3 loss is observed in the EDD mass spectra. These data suggested that SO3 loss is reduced when an electron is detached from carboxylate groups instead of sulfate. Electron detachment occurs preferentially from carboxylate versus sulfate for thermodynamic reasons, provided that carboxylate is in its ionized state. Ionization of the carboxylate group is achieved by selecting the appropriate precursor ion charge state, or by the replacement of protons with sodium cations. Increasing the ionization state by sodium cation addition decreases, but does not eliminate, SO3 loss from infrared multiphoton dissociation of the same GAG precursor ions.

Electron detachment dissociation (EDD) Fourier transform mass spectrometry has recently been shown to be a powerful tool for examining the structural features of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). The characteristics of GAG fragmentation by EDD include abundant cross-ring fragmentation primarily on hexuronic acid residues, cleavage of all glycosidic bonds, and the formation of even- and odd-electron product ions. GAG dissociation by EDD has been proposed to occur through the formation of an excited species that can undergo direct decomposition or ejects an electron and then undergoes dissociation. In this work, we perform electron-induced dissociation (EID) on singly charged GAGs to identify products that form via direct decomposition by eliminating the pathway of electron detachment. EID of GAG tetrasaccharides produces cleavage of all glycosidic bonds and abundant cross-ring fragmentation primarily on hexuronic acid residues, producing fragmentation similar to EDD of the same molecules, but distinctly different from the products of infrared multiphoton dissociation or collisionally activated decomposition. These results suggest that observed abundant fragmentation of hexuronic acid residues occurs as a result of their increased lability when they undergo electronic excitation. EID fragmentation of GAG tetrasaccharides results in both even- and odd-electron products. EID of heparan sulfate tetrasaccharide epimers produces identical fragmentation, in contrast to EDD, in which the epimers can be distinguished by their fragment ions. These data suggest that for EDD, electron detachment plays a significant role in distinguishing glucuronic acid from iduronic acid.

The first application of electron detachment dissociation (EDD) to carbohydrates is presented. The structural characterization of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) oligosaccharides by mass spectrometry is a longstanding problem because of the lability of these acidic, polysulfated carbohydrates. Doubly-charged negative ions of four GAG tetrasaccharides are examined by EDD, collisionally activated dissociation (CAD), and infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD). EDD is found to produce information-rich mass spectra with both cross ring and glycosidic cleavage product ions. In contrast, most of the product ions produced by CAD and IRMPD result from glycosidic cleavage. EDD shows great potential as a tool for locating the sites of sulfation and other modifications in glycosaminoglycan oligosaccharides.

A simple procedure is described that increases sensitivity and dynamic range for the analysis of a proteome batch digest by FT-ICR mass spectrometry. Ions at the low and high mass ranges are preferentially collected using two different sets of tuning conditions. By combing data collected using tuning conditions that favor low mass (m/z < 2000) and high mass (m/z > 2000) ions, 277 proteins are identified for a whole cell lysate of Methanococcus maripaludis in a single HPLC-MALDI FT-ICR mass spectrometry experiment, a 70% improvement compared with previous analyses using a wide mass range acquisition. This procedure improves the detection of low abundance ions and thereby increases the range of proteins that are observed. Because the observed mass range is effectively narrower for each spectrum, mass calibration is more accurate than for the standard method that provides a wide range of masses. The trap plate potential on the analyzer cell may be set to a higher value than used for wide mass range measurements, increasing the ion capacity of the analyzer cell and extending the dynamic range, while still maintaining mass accuracy.

Electrospray ionization (ESI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR) is used to measure the molecular weight of the high potential iron-sulfur protein (HiPIP) from Chromatium vinosum (C. vinosum) and its corresponding apoprotein. By accurate mass measurement of the metalloprotein, the oxidation state of the [4Fe-4S] metal center is assigned as 3+. This is the highest oxidation state yet observed by mass spectrometry for a [4Fe-4S] cluster, which usually appears in the 2+ oxidation state. In order to make this assignment correctly, the mass spectrum of the apoprotein was acquired, and a 1 Da difference was found between the molecular mass of the apoprotein and its published amino acid sequence. The mass spectra of the trypsin and cyanogen bromide digests of the alkylated apoprotein were obtained, and the data suggests that the C-terminal glycine residue is amidated.

The stability of iron–sulfur proteins during electrospray ionization in both positive ion and negative ion modes was investigated using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Positive ion and negative ion mode mass spectra of iron and zinc rubredoxin from Clostridium pasteurianum and ferredoxins from Pyrococcus furiosus containing [3Fe–4S], [4Fe–4S], [3FeNi–4S], and [3FeMn–4S] clusters are compared. The results demonstrate that all clusters are stable as negative ions, whereas only the [4M–4S], (M = Fe, Mn, Ni) clusters are stable as positive ions. This is the first direct evidence of the existence of the [3FeMn–4S]-containing cluster from Pyrococcus furiosus. The formal oxidation state of each metal–sulfur cluster is determined by the mass-to-charge measurement, and is found to be the same for both positive and negative ions.

Electron detachment dissociation (EDD) Fourier transform mass spectrometry has recently been shown to be a powerful tool for examining the structural features of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). The characteristics of GAG fragmentation by EDD include abundant cross-ring fragmentation primarily on hexuronic acid residues, cleavage of all glycosidic bonds, and the formation of even- and odd-electron product ions. GAG dissociation by EDD has been proposed to occur through the formation of an excited species that can undergo direct decomposition or ejects an electron and then undergoes dissociation. In this work, we perform electron-induced dissociation (EID) on singly charged GAGs to identify products that form via direct decomposition by eliminating the pathway of electron detachment. EID of GAG tetrasaccharides produces cleavage of all glycosidic bonds and abundant cross-ring fragmentation primarily on hexuronic acid residues, producing fragmentation similar to EDD of the same molecules, but distinctly different from the products of infrared multiphoton dissociation or collisionally activated decomposition. These results suggest that observed abundant fragmentation of hexuronic acid residues occurs as a result of their increased lability when they undergo electronic excitation. EID fragmentation of GAG tetrasaccharides results in both even- and odd-electron products. EID of heparan sulfate tetrasaccharide epimers produces identical fragmentation, in contrast to EDD, in which the epimers can be distinguished by their fragment ions. These data suggest that for EDD, electron detachment plays a significant role in distinguishing glucuronic acid from iduronic acid.Fragmentation of glycosaminoglycan tetrasaccharide singly charged ions by electron-induced dissociation produces many products similar to those produced by electron detachment dissociation of higher charge states.Download high-res image (71KB)Download full-size image

Stepwise-external calibration has previously been shown to produce sub part-per-million (ppm) mass accuracy for the MALDI-FTICR/MS analyses of peptides up to m/z 2500. The present work extends these results to ions up to m/z 4000. Mass measurement errors for ions of higher mass-to-charge are larger than for ions below m/z 2500 when using conventional chirp excitation to detect ions. Mass accuracy obtained by using stored waveform inverse Fourier transform (SWIFT) excitation was evaluated and compared with chirp excitation. Analysis of measurement errors reveals that SWIFT excitation provides smaller deviations from the calibration equation and better mass accuracy than chirp excitation for a wide mass range and for widely varying ion populations.

It has been previously observed that the measured frequency of ions in a Fourier transform mass spectrometry experiment depend upon the number of trapped ions, even for populations consisting exclusively of a single mass-to-charge. Since ions of the same mass-to-charge are thought not to exert a space–charge effect among themselves, the experimental observation of such frequency shifts raises questions about their origin. To determine the source of such experimentally observed frequency shifts, multiparticle ion trajectory simulations have been conducted on monoisotopic populations of Cs+ ranging from 102 ions to 106 ions. A close match to experimental behavior is observed. By probing the effect of ion number and orbital radius on the shift in the cyclotron frequency, it is shown that for a monoisotopic population of ions, the frequency shift is caused by the interaction of ions with their image-charge. The addition of ions of a second mass-to-charge to the simulation allows the comparison of the magnitude of the frequency shift resulting from space–charge (ion–ion) effects versus ion interactions with their image charge.Particle-in-cell simulation of the behavior of 7000 ions with three mass-to-charge values in a cubic analyzer cell of a Fourier transform ICR mass spectrometer.Download high-res image (94KB)Download full-size image

The first application of electron detachment dissociation (EDD) to carbohydrates is presented. The structural characterization of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) oligosaccharides by mass spectrometry is a longstanding problem because of the lability of these acidic, polysulfated carbohydrates. Doubly-charged negative ions of four GAG tetrasaccharides are examined by EDD, collisionally activated dissociation (CAD), and infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD). EDD is found to produce information-rich mass spectra with both cross ring and glycosidic cleavage product ions. In contrast, most of the product ions produced by CAD and IRMPD result from glycosidic cleavage. EDD shows great potential as a tool for locating the sites of sulfation and other modifications in glycosaminoglycan oligosaccharides.