Investigation of the tris(trimethoxyphenyl)phosphonium acetyl charged derivatives of peptides by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry.

Charged derivatives of peptides are useful in obtaining simpler collision-activated dissociation (CAD) mass spectra. An N-terminal charge-derivatizing reagent capable of reacting with picomole levels of peptide has been recently reported (Huang et al. Anal. Chem. 1997, 69, 137-144) in the contexts of analyses by fast atom bombardment (FAB) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry. Electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometric investigation of these tris(trimethoxyphenylphosphonium) acetyl derivatives are described in this article, including studies by in-source fragmentation (ISF) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Results from ISF are compared with those from MS/MS. Similarities and differences between ESI-ISF, MALDI-post-source decay (PSD), and FAB-CAD data are presented. Differences in fragmentation of these charged derivatives in the triple quadrupole and ion trap mass spectrometers also are discussed. Application of this derivatizing procedure to tryptic digests and subsequent analysis by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry is also shown.