Fundamental Gas-Phase Properties of Non-Protein Amino Acids and Non-Protein Amino Acid - Containing Peptides

在这个由实验物理化学项目资助的奖项中，来自威廉和玛丽学院的Poutsma教授和他的学生将研究氨基酸及其气相离子化学。第一个目标是了解氨基酸的结构和它们的气相能量性质之间的微妙相互作用。研究人员将重点研究所谓的非蛋白质氨基酸(NPAA)的气相热化学，其中许多对人类和其他动物有毒，部分原因是结构上与20种常见蛋白质氨基酸(PAA)中的一种或多种相似。自然产生的非蛋白质氨基酸(NPAA)的绝对气相热化学性质将被确定为与其对应的PAA相比较，无论是作为单独的氨基酸还是当被结合到小肽中时。第二个目标集中在NPAA取代成小肽的影响上，这将通过研究PAA多肽及其类似物的碎片模式来实现。这个项目有生物学意义，因为许多NPAA可以错误地结合到多肽和蛋白质中。为了解释自上而下和自下而上的蛋白质组学实验的质谱图，有必要详细了解含有NPAA的多肽的任何不寻常的裂解行为。最终目标是更好地理解在低能量串联质谱学实验中导致对感兴趣的多肽进行不完全序列覆盖的“选择性”碎片的机制。以本科生为主的化学系的主要职能是为未来几代科学家做准备。在威廉与玛丽学院，这一任务是通过课堂教学和本科生研究来完成的。由于学院化学专业80%以上的学生进行本科生研究，预计在该奖项的三年中，将有15-20名本科生在Poutsma教授的实验室进行研究。根据目前的人口统计数据，这些学生中大约有一半是女性或代表人数不足的群体的成员。

In this award, funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program, Professor Poutsma from College of William and Mary and his students will investigate amino acids and their gas phase ion chemistry. The first goal is to understand the subtle interplay between the structure of amino acids and their gas-phase energetic properties. The researchers will focus on the gas phase thermochemistry of so-called non-protein amino acids (NPAA), many of which are toxic to humans and other animals in part due to structural similarity to one or more of the twenty common protein amino acids (PAA). Absolute gas-phase thermochemical properties will be determined for naturally-occurring non-protein amino acids (NPAA) as compared to their PAA counterparts, both as isolated amino acids and when incorporated into small peptides.The second goal focuses on the effects of NPAA-substitution into small peptides which will be accomplished by studying fragmentation patterns of PAA peptides and their NPAA analogs. There is biological relevance to this project in that many NPAA can mis-incorporate into peptides and proteins. Detailed knowledge of any unusual fragmentation behavior for peptides containing NPAAs will be necessary in order to interpret mass spectra from both top-down and bottom-up proteomics experiments. The ultimate goal is to better understand the mechanisms for "selective" fragmentations in low-energy tandem mass spectrometry experiments that lead to incomplete sequence coverage for the peptide of interest. The main function of a primarily undergraduate chemistry department is the preparation of future generations of scientists. At the College of William and Mary, this charge is accomplished through both classroom teaching and undergraduate research. Since over eighty percent of the College's chemistry majors perform undergraduate research, over the three years of this award it is anticipated that 15-20 undergraduate students will perform research in Professor Poutsma's laboratory. Based on current demographics, approximately one-half of these students will be either female or a member of an underrepresented group.