Salt Bridge Rearrangement (SaBRe) Explains the Dissociation Behavior of Noncovalent Complexes.

ABSTRACT: Native electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry, with gas-phase activation and solution compositions that partially release subcomplexes, can elucidate topologies of macromolecular assemblies. That so much complexity can be preserved in gas-phase assemblies is remarkable, although a long-standing conundrum has been the differences between their gas- and solution-phase decompositions. Collision-induced dissociation of multimeric noncovalent complexes typically distributes products asymmetrically (i.e., by ejecting a single subunit bearing a large percentage of the excess charge). That unexpected behavior has been rationalized as one subunit "unfolding" to depart with more charge. We present an alternative explanation based on heterolytic ion-pair scission and rearrangement, a mechanism tha

SUBMITTER: Loo RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4865452 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature