Jv. Olsen et al., Comparison of electron capture dissociation and collisionally activated dissociation of polycations of peptide nucleic acids, RAP C MASS, 15(12), 2001, pp. 969-974
Electron capture dissociation (ECD) in Fourier transform ion cyclotron reso
nance mass spectrometry coupled with electrospray ionization enhances the s
equence elucidation of peptide nucleic acids compared with conventional low
-energy collisionally activated dissociation (CAD). Examples are shown wher
e ECD produced complete or extensive sequence coverage in PNAs six to ten n
ucleobases long. However, facile base losses from the reduced species and l
ow abundances of backbone ECD fragments presented a significant problem. Th
is was rationalized through the lower degree of charge solvation on the bac
kbone compared to polypeptides. Combination of both CAD and ECD data is adv
antageous, as these techniques produce cleavages at different sites. Copyri
ght (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.