Differentiation of hydroxyproline isomers and isobars in peptides by tandem mass spectrometry

The isomeric 3- and 4-hydroxyprolines are isobaric with the isomers leucine and isoleucine, and all four have, therefore, the same "residue mass" of 113. Secondary fragmentation processes were found that differentiate the hydroxyproline isomers from each other and from the leucines. Variants of synthetic bradykinin containing one or two hydroxyproline moieties were prepared by using manual Edman degradation and/or enzymatic methods. The tandem mass spectra of these peptides were recorded. The C-terminal wn fragment ions allow the differentiation of 4-hydroxyproline from the 3-isomer and isoleucine, while the N-terminal an ions containing 4-hydroxyproline undergo H2O elimination to differentiate this amino acid from the 3-isomer and leucine. Lys-C digestion of a mussel adhesive protein produced a set of decapeptides varying in the degree of hydroxylation of proline and tyrosine. Heterogeneity with respect to 3-hydroxyproline and 4-hydroxyproline at a certain position in these peptides was assessed by tandem mass spectrometry based on the wn ion series in the CID spectra of these Lys-C peptides. Some N-terminal ions further allow for the differentiation of these two isomeric species.