Copper-mediated intra-ligand oxygen transfer in gas-phase complexes with 3-nitrotyrosine

Gas-phase ternary complexes with Cu(II) and 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) of tyrosine, 3-aminotyrosine, 3-nitrotyrosine and 3-nitrotyrosine methyl ether are formed readily upon electrospraying aqueous methanol solutions containing the components. In contrast to Cu(bpy) complexes of tyrosine, 3-aminotyrosine and other aromatic amino acids, the complexes of 3-nitrotyrosine and its methyl ether undergo unusual collisionally activated dissociations (CADs) that involve Cu-mediated transfer of an oxygen atom from the nitro group. With 3-nitrotyrosine this results in an expulsion of carbonic acid, H(2)CO(3), whereas with 3-nitrotyrosine methyl ether an OH migration forms Cu(OH)bpy(+) as the predominant product. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of an intra-ligand redox reaction in a gas-phase organometallic complex. The reaction mechanism of this unusual dissociation was elucidated by a combination of isotope labeling, accurate mass measurements, energy-resolved CAD mass spectra and density functional theory calculations of ion structures and relative energies.