Variable-Temperature ESI-IMS-MS Analysis of Myohemerythrin Reveals Ligand Losses, Unfolding, and a Non-Native Disulfide Bond

Anal Chem. 2019 May 21;91(10):6808-6814. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b00981. Epub 2019 May 9.

Abstract

Variable-temperature electrospray ionization combined with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques are used to monitor structural transitions of the protein myohemerythrin from peanut worm in aqueous ammonium acetate solutions from ∼15 to 92 °C. At physiological temperatures, myohemerythrin favors a four-helix bundle motif and has a diiron oxo cofactor that binds oxygen. As the solution temperature is increased from ∼15 to 35 °C, some bound oxygen dissociates; at ∼66 °C, the cofactor dissociates to produce populations of both folded and unfolded apoprotein. At higher temperatures (∼85 °C and above), the IMS-MS spectrum indicates that the folded apoprotein dominates, and provides evidence for stabilization of the structure by formation of a non-native disulfide bond. In total, we find evidence for 18 unique forms of myohemerythrin as well as information about the structures and stabilities of these states. The high-fidelity of IMS-MS techniques provides a means of examining the stabilities of individual components of complex mixtures that are inaccessible by traditional calorimetric and spectroscopic methods.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Disulfides / chemistry
  • Helminth Proteins / analysis*
  • Helminth Proteins / chemistry
  • Helminth Proteins / metabolism
  • Hemerythrin / analysis*
  • Hemerythrin / chemistry
  • Hemerythrin / metabolism
  • Ion Mobility Spectrometry / methods
  • Ligands
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Oxygen / metabolism
  • Polychaeta / chemistry
  • Protein Unfolding
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / methods
  • Transition Temperature

Substances

  • Disulfides
  • Helminth Proteins
  • Hemerythrin
  • Ligands
  • myohemerythrin
  • Oxygen