Surveying the sequence diversity of model prebiotic peptides by mass spectrometry

The rise of peptides with secondary structures and functions would have been a key step in the chemical evolution which led to life. As with modern biology, amino acid sequence would have been a primary determinant of peptide structure and activity in an origins-of-life scenario. It is a commonly held hypothesis that unique functional sequences would have emerged from a diverse soup of proto-peptides, yet there is a lack of experimental data in support of this. Whereas the majority of studies in the field focus on peptides containing only one or two types of amino acids, here we used modern mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques to separate and sequence de novo proto-peptides containing broader combinations of prebiotically plausible monomers. Using a dry-wet environmental cycling protocol, hundreds of proto-peptide sequences were formed over a mere 4 d of reaction. Sequence homology diagrams were constructed to compare experimental and theoretical sequence spaces of tetrameric proto-peptides. MS-based analyses such as this will be increasingly necessary as origins-of-life researchers move toward systems-level investigations of prebiotic chemistry.

The angiopoietin-like protein ANGPTL4 catalyzes unfolding of the hydrolase domain in lipoprotein lipase and the endothelial membrane protein GPIHBP1 counteracts this unfolding

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) undergoes spontaneous inactivation via global unfolding and this unfolding is prevented by GPIHBP1 (Mysling et al., 2016). We now show: (1) that ANGPTL4 inactivates LPL by catalyzing the unfolding of its hydrolase domain; (2) that binding to GPIHBP1 renders LPL largely refractory to this inhibition; and (3) that both the LU domain and the intrinsically disordered acidic domain of GPIHBP1 are required for this protective effect. Genetic studies have found that a common polymorphic variant in ANGPTL4 results in lower plasma triglyceride levels. We now report: (1) that this ANGPTL4 variant is less efficient in catalyzing the unfolding of LPL; and (2) that its Glu-to-Lys substitution destabilizes its N-terminal α-helix. Our work elucidates the molecular basis for regulation of LPL activity by ANGPTL4, highlights the physiological relevance of the inherent instability of LPL, and sheds light on the molecular defects in a clinically relevant variant of ANGPTL4.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20958.001

Collision cross section calibrants for negative ion mode traveling wave ion mobility-mass spectrometry

Unlike traditional drift-tube ion mobility-mass spectrometry, traveling-wave ion mobility-mass spectrometry typically requires calibration in order to generate collision cross section (CCS) values. Although this has received a significant amount of attention for positive-ion mode analysis, little attention has been paid for CCS calibration in negative ion mode. Here, we provide drift-tube CCS values for [M - H](-) ions of two calibrant series, polyalanine and polymalic acid, and evaluate both types of calibrants in terms of the accuracy and precision of the traveling-wave ion mobility CCS values that they produce.

Gas molecule scattering & ion mobility measurements for organic macro-ions in He versus N2 environments

A pending issue in linking ion mobility measurements to ion structures is that the collisional cross section (CCS, the measured structural parameter in ion mobility spectrometry) of an ion is strongly dependent upon the manner in which gas molecules effectively impinge on and are reemitted from ion surfaces (when modeling ions as fixed structures). To directly examine the gas molecule impingement and reemission processes and their influence, we measured the CCSs of positively charged ions of room temperature ionic liquids 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (EMIM-N(CN)2) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMIM-BF4) in N2 using a differential mobility analyzer-mass spectrometer (DMA-MS) and in He using a drift tube mobility spectrometer-mass spectrometer (DT-MS). Cluster ions, generated via electrosprays, took the form (AB)N(A)z, spanning up to z = 20 and with masses greater than 100 kDa. As confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations, at the measurement temperature (∼300 K), such cluster ions took on globular conformations in the gas phase. Based upon their attained charge levels, in neither He nor N2 did the ion-induced dipole potential significantly influence gas molecule-ion collisions. Therefore, differences in the CCSs measured for ions in the two different gases could be primarily attributed to differences in gas molecule behavior upon collision with ions. Overwhelmingly, by comparison of predicted CCSs with selected input impingement-reemission laws to measurements, we find that in N2, gas molecules collide with ions diffusely--they are reemitted at random angles relative to the gas molecule incoming angle--and inelastically. Meanwhile, in He, gas molecules collide specularly and elastically and are emitted from ion surfaces at determined angles. The results can be rationalized on the basis of the momentum transferred per collision; in the case of He, individual gas molecule collisions minimally perturb the atoms within a cluster ion (internal motion), while in the case of N2, individual gas molecules have sufficiently large momentum to alter the internal motion in organic ions.

Probing Protein Structure and Folding in the Gas Phase by Electron Capture Dissociation

The established methods for the study of atom-detailed protein structure in the condensed phases, X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, have recently been complemented by new techniques by which nearly or fully desolvated protein structures are probed in gas-phase experiments. Electron capture dissociation (ECD) is unique among these as it provides residue-specific, although indirect, structural information. In this Critical Insight article, we discuss the development of ECD for the structural probing of gaseous protein ions, its potential, and limitations.