Counting basic sites in oligopeptides via gas-phase ion chemistry.

Cations derived from oligopeptides ranging from laminin fragment (5 residues) to beta-lactoglobulin (162 residues) have been subjected to gas-phase ion/molecule reactions with hydroiodic acid. The sum of the ion charge state and the maximum number of molecules of hydroiodic acid that attach to the ion is equal to the total number of lysines, arginines, histidines, and N-termini consisting of a primary amine for ions derived from all 21 oligopeptides studied. These results suggest that ion/molecule reactions can provide useful information regarding oligopeptide basic site number, which might be used as a criterion for searching protein data bases instead of, or in conjunction with, use of proteolytic digestion or gas-phase ion dissociation procedures.