Gas-phase metalloprotein complexes interrogated by ion mobility-mass spectrometry

Gas-phase biomolecular structure may be explored through a number of analytical techniques. Ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) continues to prove itself as a sensitive and reliable bioanalytical tool for gas-phase structure determination due to intense study and development over the past 15 years. A vast amount of research interest, especially in protein and peptide conformational studies has generated a wealth of structural information for biological systems from small peptides to megadalton-sized biomolecules. In this work, linear low field IM-MS has been used to study gas-phase conformations and determine rotationally averaged collision cross-sections of three metalloproteins—cytochrome c, haemoglobin and calmodulin. Measurements have been performed on the MoQToF, a modified QToF 1 instrument (Micromass UK Ltd., Manchester, UK) modified in house. Gas-phase conformations and cross-sections of multimeric cytochrome c ions of the form [xM + nH+]n+ for x = 1–3 (monomer to trimer) have been successfully characterised and measured. We believe these to be the first reported collision cross-sections of higher order multimeric cytochrome c. Haemoglobin is investigated to obtain structural information on the associative mechanism of tetramer formation. Haemoglobin molecules, comprising apo- and holo-monomer chains, dimer and tetramer are transferred to the gas phase under a range of solution conditions. Structural information on the proposed critical intermediate, semi-haemoglobin, is reported. Cross-sections of the calcium binding protein calmodulin have been obtained under a range of calcium-bound conditions. Metalloprotein collision cross-sections from ion mobility measurements are compared with computationally derived values from published NMR and X-ray crystallography structural data. Finally we consider the change in the density of the experimentally measured rotationally averaged collision cross-section for compact geometries of the electrosprayed proteins.

Ion mobility-mass spectrometry is employed to study the conformations of metalloproteins in the gas phase. Results give insight to subunit assembly and are compared to conformations from crystal structures.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide