Use of a single-quadrupole mass spectrometer for collision-induced dissociation studies of multiply charged peptide ions produced by electrospray ionization.

The feasibility of obtaining the collision-induced dissociation (CID) spectra of multiply charged peptide ions produced by electrospray ionization in a simple and inexpensive single-quadrupole mass spectrometer is demonstrated. Collisional activation was carried out in the high-pressure region between the capillary exit and the skimmer entrance to the mass analyzer. The CID of multiply charged peptide ions is very efficient, and the observed fragment ion intensities are typically 1-5% of the parent ion intensity prior to CID. About 70 pmol of the peptide is consumed in obtaining each CID spectrum. Spectra obtained by CID of multiply charged ions from bradykinin, angiotensin II, two peptides with features similar to tryptic peptides, and a synthetic analogue of a component of TGF-alpha containing two disulfide bonds are shown. The influence of the primary structure of the peptide on the observed fragmentation pathways is discussed. Although the present single-quadrupole configuration is simple and effective, the inability to choose a particular parent ion for collisional activation makes it less powerful than the triple-quadrupole configuration for mixtures of peptides and peptide samples that yield more than one charge state in the normal mass spectrum. However, it has the potential for inexpensively obtaining sequence information of proteins at high sensitivity by analyzing the pure tryptic peptides obtained by on-line or off-line chromatographic separation of tryptic digests.