Effect of Structural Parameters on the Electron Capture Dissociation and Collision-Induced Dissociation Pathways of Copper(II)–Peptide Complexes

The gas-phase dissociation pathways of proteins/peptides are usually affected by the nature of the charge carrier and the sequence of amino acid residues. The effects of peptide structural parameters, including peptide composition, chain length and amide hydrogen, on the gas-phase dissociation of Cu(II)–model peptide complexes were explored in this study. Polyglycine peptides with flexible frames were used as probes to reduce the complexity of the system and illustrate the mechanism. Results revealed that the types of fragment ions generated in the electron capture dissociation (ECD) of Cu(II)-adducted peptides changed according to the basic amino acid residue composition. Charged or neutral tryptophan side-chain losses were observed in the collision-induced dissociation (CID) of Cu(II)–peptide complexes. Internal electron transfer between tryptophan and metal ion within the complex occurred during the CID reaction, leaving the charge-reduced Cu+ as a closed d-shell stable electron configuration. The choice of the reaction channel was then determined by the gas-phase basicity of the peptide. Amide hydrogen was critical in the formation of metalated b-/ y-ions in the ECD process as determined through mutation of the backbone amide group. Increasing the chain length suppressed the ECD of Cu-metalated peptide species. Our results indicate that the structural parameters of peptides play important roles in the gas-phase dissociation processes of Cu–peptide complexes.