JMSSJ On-line, Vol. 55 (2007) No. 5, pp. 333-338
Site-Specific Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Analysis of a Protein by Mass Spectrometry Coupled with Carboxypeptidase Digestion
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    Tatsuya YAMAMOTO,1* Toshifumi TAKAO,2 Shunsuke IZUMI,3 and Kunihiko GEKKO3

    1 Biometal Science Laboratory, RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Sayo, Sayo-gun, HYOGO, JAPAN
    2 Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, Suita, OSAKA, JAPAN
    3 The Department of Mathematical and Life Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, HIROSHIMA, JAPAN

Site-specific hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange was investigated using a model protein, Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase, by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS) coupled with two-step protease digestion by pepsin and carboxypeptidase P. Carboxypeptidase, which is generally inactive under quenching conditions (0ºC and pH 2.9), produced some overlapping peptide sequences in the presence of 3.9 mM NaCl as a stabilizer. From differences in the masses of these peptides, we successfully determined the deuterium incorporation of backbone amide hydrogens of six residues—Met16 (M20 loop), Glu17 (M20 loop), Met92 (βE), Ala117 (βF-βG loop), Cys152 (βH), and Phe153 (βH)—at a higher resolution using the program Isotopica, which is capable of deconvoluting a complex isotope envelope associated with the isotope distribution of deuterated peptides. The H/D exchange kinetics data obtained were highly consistent with the local structure and fluctuation of these sites as revealed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray crystallography. These results demonstrate that MALDI MS coupled with two-step digestion is a useful tool for studying the site-specific H/D exchange of proteins without the deuterium scrambling that occurs in the gas-phase collision-induced dissociation method.

Key words: Mass spectrometry, Carboxypeptidase, Site-specific hydrogen/deuterium exchange, Protein dynamics, Dihydrofolate reductase

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