Platform dependencies in bottom-up hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry

Hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry is an important method for protein structure-function analysis. The bottom-up approach uses protein digestion to localize deuteration to higher resolution, and the essential measurement involves centroid mass determinations on a very large set of peptides. In the course of evaluating systems for various projects, we established two (HDX-MS) platforms that consisted of a FT-MS and a high-resolution QTOF mass spectrometer, each with matched front-end fluidic systems. Digests of proteins spanning a 20-110 kDa range were deuterated to equilibrium, and figures-of-merit for a typical bottom-up (HDX-MS) experiment were compared for each platform. The Orbitrap Velos identified 64% more peptides than the 5600 QTOF, with a 42% overlap between the two systems, independent of protein size. Precision in deuterium measurements using the Orbitrap marginally exceeded that of the QTOF, depending on the Orbitrap resolution setting. However, the unique nature of FT-MS data generates situations where deuteration measurements can be inaccurate, because of destructive interference arising from mismatches in elemental mass defects. This is shown through the analysis of the peptides common to both platforms, where deuteration values can be as low as 35% of the expected values, depending on FT-MS resolution, peptide length and charge state. These findings are supported by simulations of Orbitrap transients, and highlight that caution should be exercised in deriving centroid mass values from FT transients that do not support baseline separation of the full isotopic composition.