Monitoring structural changes of proteins in an ion trap over approximately 10-200 ms: unfolding transitions in cytochrome c ions. |
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Authors: | E R Badman C S Hoaglund-Hyzer D E Clemmer |
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Affiliation: | Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA. |
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Abstract: | A new technique for studying the time dependence of conformational changes of gas-phase protein ions is described. In this approach, a short pulse of electrosprayed protein ions is introduced into an ion trap and stored. After a defined time period, the distribution of ions is ejected from the trap into an ion mobility/time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Combined measurements of mobilities and flight times in the mass spectrometer provide information about the abundances of different conformer types and charge-state distributions. By varying the storage time in the trap, it is possible to monitor changes in ion conformation that occur over extended time periods (approximately 10-200 ms). The method is demonstrated by examining changes in cytochrome c ion conformations for the +7 to +10 charge states. |
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