193 nm photodissociation of larger multiply-charged biomolecules

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In contrast to most ion dissociation methods, 193 nm ultraviolet photodissociation of electrosprayed melittin (2.8 kDa) and ubiquitin (8.6 kDa) molecular ions yields new c and z ions (backbone amine bond dissociation) that provide additional sequence information. Dissociation by collisions or infrared photons produce b and y ions; for cleavages between the same amino acids the c ion represents the addition of NH2 to the b ion, and z the loss of NH2 from the y ion, so that these ions can be differentiated by this ± 16.02 Da difference. However, 193 nm photodissociation of 12–29 kDa ions as yet does not give collectable product ions, and that of the very stable y182+ ion from ubiquitin only effects a side chain loss. 193 nm irradiation of negative ions of all-T 30-mer DNA appears to eject electrons; apparently this is the first observation of electron photodetachment from multiply-charged negative ions.