Origin and removal of adducts (molecular mass = 98 u) attached to peptide and protein ions in electrospray ionization mass spectra.

Electrospray ionization of peptides and proteins often produces intense adduct ions resulting from the attachment of a moeity with mass 98 u. The formation of these adduct ions results in a substantial reduction in the mass spectrometric sensitivity and an undesirable increase in the complexity of the mass spectra. In the present study it was shown that the removal of the attached adducts from peptide and protein ions can be affected by collisional activation and that the adducts arise from the attachment of sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid to peptide and protein ions. When sulfate and phosphate ions are removed from the samples by chemical means, adduct free ions are obtained from proteins yielding spectra with improved quality and sensitivity.