Advanced functional genomic tools now allow the parallel and high-throughput analyses of gene and protein expression. Although this information is crucial to our understanding of gene function, it offers insufficient insight into phenotypic changes associated with metabolism. Here we introduce a high-capacity Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Mass Spectrometry (FTMS)-based method, capable of nontargeted metabolic analysis and suitable for rapid screening of similarities and dissimilarities in large collections of biological samples (e.g., plant mutant populations). Separation of the metabolites was achieved solely by ultra-high mass resolution; Identification of the putative metabolite or class of metabolites to which it belongs was achieved by determining the elemental composition of the metabolite based upon the accurate mass determination; and relative quantitation was achieved by comparing the absolute intensities of each mass using internal calibration. Crude plant extracts were introduced via direct (continuous flow) injection and ionized by either electrospray ionization (ESI) or atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) in both positive or negative ionization modes. We first analyzed four consecutive stages of strawberry fruit development and identified changes in the levels of a large range of masses corresponding to known fruit metabolites. The data also revealed novel information on the metabolic transition from immature to ripe fruit. In another set of experiments, the method was used to track changes in metabolic profiles of tobacco flowers overexpressing a strawberry MYB transcription factor and altered in petal color. Only nine masses appeared different between transgenic and control plants, among which was the mass corresponding to cyanidin-3-rhamnoglucoside, the main flower pigment. The results demonstrate the feasibility and utility of the FTMS approach for a nontargeted and rapid metabolic "fingerprinting," which will greatly speed up current efforts to study the metabolome and derive gene function in any biological system.
Metabolomics, also known as Metabolic Profiling, is an emerging discipline under the umbrella concept of systems biology. The goal of metabolomics is to know and understand the concentrations and fluxes of endogenous metabolites within a living biological system under study. General tools are being developed for the rapid measurement of many metabolites in a single experiment, most of which are mass spectrometric methods. FT-ICR has unique advantages, as a mass spectrometric method, in this regard. Applications of FT-ICR to metabolomics analyses will be discussed and reviewed in the context of the single publication currently available.
Mass spectrometric analysis of wild-type proteins that have been covalently modified by bifunctional cross-linking reagents and then digested proteolytically can be used to obtain low-resolution distance constraints, which can be useful for protein structure determination. Limitations of this approach include time-consuming separation steps, such as the separation of internally cross-linked protein monomers from covalent dimers, and a susceptibility to artifacts due to low levels of natural and man-made peptide modifications that can be mistaken for cross-linked species. The results presented here show that when a crude cross-linked protein mixture is injected into an electrospray ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry (ESI-FTMS) instrument, the cross-link positions can be localized by fragmentation and mass spectrometry on the 'gas-phase purified' singly internally cross-linked monomer. Our results show that reaction of ubiquitin with the homobifunctional lysine-lysine cross-linking reagent dissuccinimidyl suberate (DSS) resulted in two cross-links consistent with the known ubiquitin tertiary structure (K6-K11 and K48-K63). Because no protein or peptide chemistry steps are needed, other than the initial cross-linking, this new top down approach appears well suited for high-throughput experiments with multiple cross-linkers and reaction conditions. Published in 2002 by John Wiley& Sons, Ltd.
In this work we present a novel in-source dissociation scheme referred to as multipole storage assisted dissociation (MSAD) for electrospray ionization (ESI) generated ions in which dissociation is effected by employing extended ion accumulation intervals in a high pressure rf-only hexapole assembly prior to mass analysis. Following an extended ion accumulation interval in which ions are confined in the rf-only hexapole, ions are gated out of the hexapole, trapped, and mass analyzed in the trapped ion cell of a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer. The accumulation region is comprised of an rf-only hexapole ion guide which separates two electrodes, a biased skimmer cone, and an auxiliary 'gate' electrode at the low pressure end of the hexapole. This technique should be applicable to other mass spectrometry platforms compatible with pulsed ionization sources including quadrupole ion traps, and time-of-flight mass analyzers. This concept is demonstrated with the dissociation of a small protein in which selective fragmentation is observed at labile amino acid linkages producing primarily y-type fragment ions.
We have probed the conformational stability of cellular retinoic acid-binding protein I, a predominantly β-sheet protein, using hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange in solution. Transiently populated intermediate states were detected using H/D exchange measurement under mildly denaturing conditions (pH 2.5 and room temperature). By inducing collisionally activated dissociation in the nozzle-skimmer region of the electrospray source of an FT ICR mass spectrometer (MS), residue-specific information was obtained as to the degree of protection of backbone amide hydrogen atoms as a function of exchange time. The measurements do not appear to be influenced by intramolecular proton mobility in the gas phase. Multiply charged fragment ions covering half of the protein sequence were readily assigned using the extremely high resolution of FT ICR, allowing in some cases protection at individual amide hydrogen atoms to be measured. The results reveal distinct structural regions featuring very different backbone protection patterns. The high data acquisition rate of the FT ICR MS results in significant improvement of temporal resolution over NMR spectroscopy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.