IDBR: High Energy Collisional Activation in an FTICR for the Study of Large Biomolecules

大多数蛋白质在生命系统中并不单独存在，而是与组装中的其他蛋白质相互作用，就像家庭成员一样。质谱学正成为研究大分子蛋白质在气相中组装的一种重要方法。这项研究的目标是组装和评估用于研究蛋白质大分子组装的仪器，确定什么蛋白质和多少蛋白质构成组装，了解它们如何相互作用，发现哪些区域是自由的，哪些区域是界面的一部分，以及在气相中。该仪器是一台傅里叶变换离子回旋共振质谱仪，将围绕目前存在的7特斯拉超导磁体建立。一旦仪器建成，蛋白质组件将通过一种非常温和的称为自然电喷雾电离的过程引入，并使用质谱学中可用的最高性能仪器类型来测量它们的质量。然后，能量将通过高能碰撞添加到复合体中，以揭示组件的组织和界面。研究结果将在广泛传播的期刊上发表在科学文献上，并以摘要和报告的形式发布在网站上：http://msr.dom.wustl.edu/.

Most proteins do not exist by themselves in living systems but interact with other proteins in assemblies much as do members of a family. Mass spectrometry is becoming an important approach for investigating large protein assemblies in the gas phase. The goal of the research is to assemble and evaluate instrumentation for investigating macromolecular assemblies of proteins, to identify what proteins and how many constitute an assembly, to learn how they interface one to another, to discover what regions are free and what regions are part of the interface, and in the gas phase. The instrument is a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer, and it will be built around a presently existing 7-tesla superconducting magnet. Once the instrument is built, protein assemblies will be introduced via a very gentle process called native electrospray ionization, and their masses measured with the highest performance instrument type that is available in mass spectrometry. Energy will then be added to the complex by high energy collisions to reveal the organization and interfaces of the assemblies. Results will be published in the scientific literature in widely disseminated journals and posted as abstracts and reports on a web site: http://msr.dom.wustl.edu/.