Mass Spectrometric and Bio-Computational Binding Strength Analysis of Multiply Charged RNAse S Gas-Phase Complexes Obtained by Electrospray Ionization from Varying In-Solution Equilibrium Conditions

We investigated the influence of a solvent’s composition on the stability of desorbed and multiply charged RNAse S ions by analyzing the non-covalent complex’s gas-phase dissociation processes. RNAse S was dissolved in electrospray ionization-compatible buffers with either increasing organic co-solv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 22; no. 19; p. 10183
Main Authors: Koy, Cornelia, Opuni, Kwabena F. M., Danquah, Bright D., Neamtu, Andrei, Glocker, Michael O.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2021
MDPI
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ISSN:1422-0067, 1661-6596, 1422-0067
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Summary:We investigated the influence of a solvent’s composition on the stability of desorbed and multiply charged RNAse S ions by analyzing the non-covalent complex’s gas-phase dissociation processes. RNAse S was dissolved in electrospray ionization-compatible buffers with either increasing organic co-solvent content or different pHs. The direct transition of all the ions and the evaporation of the solvent from all the in-solution components of RNAse S under the respective in-solution conditions by electrospray ionization was followed by a collision-induced dissociation of the surviving non-covalent RNAse S complex ions. Both types of changes of solvent conditions yielded in mass spectrometrically observable differences of the in-solution complexation equilibria. Through quantitative analysis of the dissociation products, i.e., from normalized ion abundances of RNAse S, S-protein, and S-peptide, the apparent kinetic and apparent thermodynamic gas-phase complex properties were deduced. From the experimental data, it is concluded that the stability of RNAse S in the gas phase is independent of its in-solution equilibrium but is sensitive to the complexes’ gas-phase charge states. Bio-computational in-silico studies showed that after desolvation and ionization by electrospray, the remaining binding forces kept the S-peptide and S-protein together in the gas phase predominantly by polar interactions, which indirectly stabilized the in-bulk solution predominating non-polar intermolecular interactions. As polar interactions are sensitive to in-solution protonation, bio-computational results provide an explanation of quantitative experimental data with single amino acid residue resolution.
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ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms221910183