Near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectra and specific dissociation of small peptoid molecules

In this study, the total ion yield near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectra of four similar peptoid molecules, which differ in the numbers and positions of methyl groups, were investigated experimentally and theoretically. At each excitation energy, the intensity and branching ratio of each ionic product were measured. At a few resonant excitation energies, a specific dissociation of the C-CO bond at the nitrogen and oxygen K-edges and of the N-CO bond at the carbon K-edge was dominant, which correlated well with the predicted destination antibonding orbitals of the core electron excitation. These specific dissociation mechanisms of small peptoid molecules could provide insights into similar phenomena that occur in peptide molecules.

Identifying the protonation site and the scope of non-proline cis-peptide bond conformations: a first-principles study on protonated oligopeptides

The existence of non-proline cis-peptide bond conformations of protonated triglycine proposed by us has been verified through a recent IR-IR double resonance experiment. However, the scope of such unique structures in protonated oligopeptides and whether protonation at amide oxygen is more stable than that at traditional amino nitrogen remain unsolved. In this study, the most stable conformers of a series of protonated oligopeptides were fully searched. Our findings reveal that the special cis-peptide bond structure appears with high energies for diglycine and is energetically less favored for tetra- and pentapeptides, while it acts as the global minimum only for tripeptides. To explore the formation mechanism of the cis-peptide bond, electrostatic potential analysis, and intramolecular interactions were analyzed. Advanced theoretical calculations confirmed that amino nitrogen is still preferred as the protonated site in most cases except glycylalanylglycine(GAG). The energy difference between the two protonated isomers of GAG is only 0.03 kcal mol^-1, indicating that the tripeptide is most likely to be protonated on the amide oxygen first. We also conducted chemical (infrared (IR)) and electronic (X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectra (NEXAFS)) structure calculations of these peptides to identify their notable differences unambiguously. This study thus provides valuable information for exploring the scope of cis-peptide bond conformation and the competition between two different protonated ways.

Electron and ion spectroscopy of azobenzene in the valence and core shells

Azobenzene is a prototype and a building block of a class of molecules of extreme technological interest as molecular photo-switches. We present a joint experimental and theoretical study of its response to irradiation with light across the UV to x-ray spectrum. The study of valence and inner shell photo-ionization and excitation processes combined with measurement of valence photoelectron-photoion coincidence and mass spectra across the core thresholds provides a detailed insight into the site- and state-selected photo-induced processes. Photo-ionization and excitation measurements are interpreted via the multi-configurational restricted active space self-consistent field method corrected by second order perturbation theory. Using static modeling, we demonstrate that the carbon and nitrogen K edges of azobenzene are suitable candidates for exploring its photoinduced dynamics thanks to the transient signals appearing in background-free regions of the NEXAFS and XPS.

First-principles correction scheme for linear-response time-dependent density functional theory calculations of core electronic states

Linear-response time-dependent density functional theory (LR-TDDFT) for core level spectroscopy using standard local functionals suffers from self-interaction error and a lack of orbital relaxation upon creation of the core hole. As a result, LR-TDDFT calculated x-ray absorption near edge structure spectra needed to be shifted along the energy axis to match experimental data. We propose a correction scheme based on many-body perturbation theory to calculate the shift from first-principles. The ionization potential of the core donor state is first computed and then substituted for the corresponding Kohn-Sham orbital energy, thus emulating Koopmans's condition. Both self-interaction error and orbital relaxation are taken into account. The method exploits the localized nature of core states for efficiency and integrates seamlessly in our previous implementation of core level LR-TDDFT, yielding corrected spectra in a single calculation. We benchmark the correction scheme on molecules at the K- and L-edges as well as for core binding energies and report accuracies comparable to higher order methods. We also demonstrate applicability in large and extended systems and discuss efficient approximations.

Probing Structural Information of Gas-Phase Peptides by Near-Edge X-ray Absorption Mass Spectrometry

Near-edge X-ray absorption mass spectrometry (NEXAMS) is an action-spectroscopy technique of growing interest for investigations into the spatial and electronic structure of biomolecules. It has been used successfully to give insights into different aspects of the photodissociation of peptides and to probe the conformation of proteins. It is a current question whether the fragmentation pathways are sensitive toward effects of conformational isomerism, tautomerism, and intramolecular interactions in gas-phase peptides. To address this issue, we studied the cationic fragments of cryogenically cooled gas-phase leucine enkephalin ([LeuEnk+H]⁺) and methionine enkephalin ([MetEnk+H]⁺) produced upon soft X-ray photon absorption at the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen K-edges. The interpretation of the experimental ion yield spectra was supported by density-functional theory and restricted-open-shell configuration interaction with singles (DFT/ROCIS) calculations. The analysis revealed several effects that could not be rationalized based on the peptide's amino acid sequences alone. Clear differences between the partial ion yields measured for both peptides upon C 1s → π*(C═C) excitations in the aromatic amino acid side chains give evidence for a sulfur-aromatic interaction between the methionine and phenylalanine side chain of [MetEnk+H]⁺. Furthermore, a peak associated with N 1s → π*(C═N) transitions, linked to a tautomeric keto-to-enol conversion of peptide bonds, was only present in the photon energy resolved ion yield spectra of [MetEnk+H]⁺.

Oxygen K-shell spectroscopy of isolated progressively solvated peptide

X-ray spectroscopy of an isolated controllably hydrated peptide: core excitation of the first solvation shell enhances peptide backbone fragmentation.

Competition between dispersion interactions and conventional hydrogen bonding: insights from a theoretical study on Z-Arg-OH

The dispersion interaction was reported to play a critical role in the stabilization of model dipeptide Z-Arg-OH, even greater than the conventional hydrogen bond (HB), which is opposite to the traditional opinion. Here the conformation of Z-Arg-OH has been systematically searched by the effective fragment based step-by-step strategy. All the newly-found low-energy conformers determined at the advanced DSD-PBEP86-D3(BJ)/aug-cc-pVTZ level are clearly in the stretched form with strong conventional HBs, rather than the reported folded structures with emphasis on the dispersion interactions. The simulated IR spectra of the stretched conformers fit better than those of the folded ones compared with the previous experimental observations. Near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) at C, N and O K-edges have also been simulated to unambiguously identify different isomers. This work thus provides valuable insight into the competitions between the conventional HB and the dispersion interactions and demonstrates that the conventional hydrogen bonding is still more important for such small peptides.

Single-photon absorption of isolated collagen mimetic peptides and triple-helix models in the VUV-X energy range

By monitoring ionization and fragmentation after single-photon absorption, we show that an isolated collagen triple helix model is stabilized by proline hydroxylation.