Measurement of relative amounts of phospho- and dephospho-B-50(GAP-43) peptides by fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry.

The biological role of phosphoproteins depends upon their degree of phosphorylation in vivo. Methods currently available to measure the degree of phosphorylation of a protein involve indirect procedures to detect the 32P-phosphate incorporation. We report here a direct method to measure relative amounts of phospho- and dephospho-forms of peptides based upon a mass spectrometric technique. The intensities of the molecular ions corresponding to the two forms of the peptides are proportional to their relative amounts. This is demonstrated for a peptide fragment of the protein B-50(GAP-43) and for kemptide, respectively substrates for protein kinases C and A, and demonstrates the applicability of fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry to quantitate peptides bearing post-translational modifications.