Abstract:
Dehydrated ions of 16 protonated peptides that contained
α- or
β-Aspartic isomers in 2 and 6 position respectively were generated by ESI-MS and low-energy collision-induced dissociation (CID). The relative ion abundance ratios of b
n-H
2O/b
n increased when
α-Asps were converted into
β-Asp in the peptides studied with the exception of b
6-H
2O/b
6 ratios that decreased for the peptides 8, 10, 12, 14, 16; the ratios of M+H-H
2O
+/M+H
+ also decreased. It shows that the quantitative comparison of the dehydrated and corresponding non-dehydrated ions can be used for distinguishing
α- or
β-Asp isomers in the peptides.