Use of group IIB metal ions as charge carriers for collision-induced dissociation of glycopeptide and glycan.

Rationale: Dissociation of biomolecules by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) generates a variety of fragment ions which provide useful information for the structural characterization of biomolecules. Different fragmentation strategies result in different mass spectra for the same molecule and thus provide distinct features. Charge carriers play important roles in determining the dissociation pathways of the target precursor ions. The use of various transition metals ions as charge carriers of glycopeptide and glycan might provide additional structural information and needs to be investigated.

Methods: A 9.4 T SolariX FTICR mass spectrometer was used for collision-induced dissociation (CID) of glycopeptide and glycan. Group IIB metal ions, including Zn , Cd and Hg , were used as charge carriers. Glycopeptide NLTK-M G and glycan G1F were used as the model systems.

Results: For Zn - and Cd -adducted species, cross-ring cleavages, glycosidic cleavages and cleavages along the peptide backbone could be obtained. There is a high degree of similarity in their CID spectra with that of Mg ion-adducted glycopeptide species. For Hg -adducted species, only glycosidic cleavages were observed in high abundance. The formation of doubly-charged ions (M ) and a series of [f-H] fragments indicated unique dissociation pathways for Hg -adducted glycopeptide.

Conclusions: Zn and Cd -adducted glycopeptide species produced similar dissociation CID spectra, whereas Hg -adducted species produced significantly different CID spectra. Similar CID dissociation features were also observed for Group IIB metal ions adducted glycan species. These results demonstrated that different metal ions might be used to tune the dissociation behaviors of glycopeptides and glycans.