UV photodissociation of phospho-seryl-containing peptides: laser stabilization of the phospho-seryl bond with multistage mass spectrometry.

Protonated precursor ions of phosphorylated peptides containing a tyrosyl residue have been subjected to UV laser-induced dissociation (LID) at a wavelength of 220 nm and to collision-induced dissociation (CID) in an ion trap. As expected, neutral loss of the phosphate group is one of the predominant fragmentation channels during CID together with H2O elimination. In contrast, LID leads mainly to the homolytic cleavage of the tyrosyl side chain and a restrained loss of the phosphate group. Interestingly, the intensity of the dephosphorylated fragment ion is greatly minimized when CID is carried out next on the radical precursor ion of the singly and doubly charged species. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.