Oxidation of peptides during electrospray ionization.

[M + H + 16]+ ions were observed in the electrospray ionization mass spectra of several synthetic and naturally occurring peptides. Initial results have shown that the appearance of the modification is dependent on the field strength at the electrospray needle and the flow rate of the solution passing through the capillary. Mass spectrometric experiments on peptides showing the + 16 Da modification attributed the change to the selective oxidation of either a methionyl, tryptophanyl, or tyrosyl residue present in the peptide. These results were further confirmed by tandem mass spectrometry experiments on peptides with a methionyl residue at either the N- or C-terminus, or within the peptide chain. This effect can occur under normal operating conditions and therefore care must be taken in the analysis of samples containing these oxidizable residues. Conversely, the selectivity of the oxidative process may be used to enhance the information obtained from the mass spectrometric analysis. For example, we show results for the analysis of a tryptic digest of the protein myoglobin where the occurrence of the [M + H + 16]+ ion is used, along with the molecular weight data, to correctly identify the trypic fragment.