Natural structural motifs that suppress peptide ion fragmentation after electron capture

Series of doubly and triply protonated diarginated peptide molecules with different number of glutamic acid (E) and asparagine (N) residues were analyzed under ECD conditions. ECD spectra of doubly-protonated peptides show a strong dependence on the number of E and N residues. Both the backbone cleavages and hydrogen radical (H*) loss from the charge-reduced precursor ions ([M+2H](+*)) were suppressed as the number of E and N residues increases. A strong inhibition of the backbone cleavages and H* loss from [M+2H](+*) was found for peptides with 6E residues (or 4E + 2N residues). The results obtained using these model peptides were re-confirmed by analyzing N-arginated Fibrinopeptide-B (i.e., REGVNDNEEGFFSAR). In contrast to the N-arginated peptide, ECD of the doubly-protonated Fibrinopeptide-B and its analogues show extensive backbone cleavages leading to series of c- and z-ions ( approximately 80% sequence coverage). Based on these results, it is believed that peptide ions with all surplus protons sequestered in arginine-residues would show enhanced stability under ECD conditions as the number of acid-residue increases. The suppression of backbone cleavages and H* loss from [M+2H](+*) are presumably attributed to the low reactivity of the charge-reduced precursor ions. One of the possible hypothesis is that diarginated E-rich peptides may contain hydrogen bonds between carbonyl oxygen of E side chains and backbone amide hydrogen. These hydrogen bonds would provide extra stabilization for [M+2H](+*). This is the first demonstration of natural structural motifs in peptides that would inhibit the backbone fragmentation of the charge-reduced peptide ions under ECD conditions.