Formation of y + 10 and y + 11 ions in the collision-induced dissociation of peptide ions

MS_Piano: A Software Tool for Annotating Peaks in CID Tandem Mass Spectra of Peptides and N-Glycopeptides

Annotating product ion peaks in tandem mass spectra is essential for evaluating spectral quality and validating peptide identification. This task is more complex for glycopeptides and is crucial for the confident determination of glycosylation sites in glycoproteins. MS_Piano (Mass Spectrum Peptide Annotation) software was developed for reliable annotation of peaks in collision induced dissociation (CID) tandem mass spectra of peptides or N-glycopeptides for given peptide sequences, charge states, and optional modifications. The program annotates each peak in high or low resolution spectra with possible product ion(s) and the mass difference between the measured and theoretical m/z values. Spectral quality is measured by two major parameters: the ratio between the sum of unannotated vs all peak intensities in the top 20 peaks, and the intensity of the highest unannotated peak. The product ions of peptides, glycans, and glycopeptides in spectra are labeled in different class-type colors to facilitate interpretation. MS_Piano assists validating peptide and N-glycopeptide identification from database and library searches and provides quality control and optimizes search reliability in custom developed peptide mass spectral libraries. The software is freely available in .exe and .dll formats for the Windows operating system.

Large-Scale Examination of Factors Influencing Phosphopeptide Neutral Loss during Collision Induced Dissociation

Collision-induced dissociation (CID) remains the predominant mass spectrometry-based method for identifying phosphorylation sites in complex mixtures. Unfortunately, the gas-phase reactivity of phosphoester bonds results in MS/MS spectra dominated by phosphoric acid (H3PO4) neutral loss events, suppressing informative peptide backbone cleavages. To understand the major drivers of H3PO4 neutral loss, we performed robust nonparametric statistical analysis of local and distal sequence effects on the magnitude and variability of neutral loss, using a collection of over 35,000 unique phosphopeptide MS/MS spectra. In contrast to peptide amide dissociation pathways, which are strongly influenced by adjacent amino acid side chains, we find that neutral loss of H3PO4 is affected by both proximal and distal sites, most notably basic residues and the peptide N-terminal primary amine. Previous studies have suggested that protonated basic residues catalyze neutral loss through direct interactions with the phosphate. In contrast, we find that nearby basic groups decrease neutral loss regardless of mobility class, an effect only seen by stratifying spectra by charge-mobility. The most inhibitory bases are those immediately N-terminal to the phosphate, presumably because of steric hindrances in catalyzing neutral loss. Further evidence of steric effects is shown by the presence of proline, which can dramatically reduce the presence of neutral loss when between the phosphate and a possible charge donor. In mobile proton spectra, the N-terminus is the strongest predictor of high neutral loss, with proximity to the N-terminus essential for peptides to exhibit the highest levels of neutral loss.

Lessons in de novo peptide sequencing by tandem mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry has become the method of choice for the qualitative and quantitative characterization of protein mixtures isolated from all kinds of living organisms. The raw data in these studies are MS/MS spectra, usually of peptides produced by proteolytic digestion of a protein. These spectra are "translated" into peptide sequences, normally with the help of various search engines. Data acquisition and interpretation have both been automated, and most researchers look only at the summary of the identifications without ever viewing the underlying raw data used for assignments. Automated analysis of data is essential due to the volume produced. However, being familiar with the finer intricacies of peptide fragmentation processes, and experiencing the difficulties of manual data interpretation allow a researcher to be able to more critically evaluate key results, particularly because there are many known rules of peptide fragmentation that are not incorporated into search engine scoring. Since the most commonly used MS/MS activation method is collision-induced dissociation (CID), in this article we present a brief review of the history of peptide CID analysis. Next, we provide a detailed tutorial on how to determine peptide sequences from CID data. Although the focus of the tutorial is de novo sequencing, the lessons learned and resources supplied are useful for data interpretation in general.