Combined Electron Transfer Dissociation–Collision-Induced Dissociation Fragmentation in the Mass Spectrometric Distinction of Leucine, Isoleucine, and Hydroxyproline Residues in Peptide Natural Products

Abstract

Distinctions between isobaric residues have been a major challenge in mass spectrometric peptide sequencing. Here, we propose a methodology for distinction among isobaric leucine, isoleucine, and hydroxyproline, a commonly found post-translationally modified amino acid with a nominal mass of 113 Da, through a combined electron transfer dissociation-collision-induced dissociation approach. While the absence of c and z(•) ions, corresponding to the Yyy-Xxx (Xxx = Leu, Ile, or Hyp) segment, is indicative of the presence of hydroxyproline, loss of isopropyl (Δm = 43 Da) or ethyl radicals (Δm = 29 Da), through collisional activation of z radical ions, are characteristic of leucine or isoleucine, respectively. Radical migration processes permit distinctions even in cases where the specific z(•) ions, corresponding to the Yyy-Leu or -Ile segments, are absent or of low intensity. This tandem mass spectrometric (MS(n)) method has been successfully implemented in a liquid chromatography-MS(n) platform to determine the identity of 23 different isobaric residues from a mixture of five different peptides. The approach is convenient for distinction of isobaric residues from any crude peptide mixture, typically encountered in natural peptide libraries or proteomic analysis.