Renaissance of cation-radicals in mass spectrometry

Competitive Hydrogen Atom Migrations Accompanying Cascade Dissociations of Peptide Cation-Radicals of the z+• Type

We report a combined experimental and computational study of energy-resolved collision-induced dissociation (ER-CID) and time-resolved infrared multiphoton dissociation (TR-IRMPD) of z4 ions prepared by electron transfer dissociation of peptide (Ala-Ala-Asn-Ala-Arg + 2H)2+ ions. The z4 cation-radicals, •ANAR+, undergo competitive dissociations by backbone cleavage and loss of a CONH2 radical from the Asn side chain. The backbone cleavage proceeds by radical-assisted dissociation of the Asn Cα-CO bond, forming an x2 ion intermediate which rapidly dissociates by HNCO elimination to yield a stable z2 fragment ion, •AR+. The ER-CID and TR-IRMPD data were consistent with the consecutive nature of the backbone dissociation but showed different branching ratios for the two major fragmentations. The ER-CID data showed branching ratios 0.6-1.0 for the side-chain and backbone cleavages whereas the TR-IRMPD data showed an earlier onset for the latter dissociation. Computational analysis of the potential energy surface with density functional theory and ab initio calculations was carried out to provide structures and energies for the reactant ions as well as several intermediates, products, and transition states. Dissociation pathways for cis and trans amide conformers were distinguished and their energies were evaluated. The threshold dissociation energies for the backbone and side-chain dissociations were similar in accordance with the experimental ER-CID branching ratio. The TR-IRMPD data were interpreted by different absorbances of intermediates produced by hydrogen atom migrations along the dissociation pathways.