Electrospray Ionization and Ion Mobility Analysis of Vaults, MDa Ribonucleoprotein Complexes

摘要

As a structural elucidation tool, mass and ion mobility spectrometry are not limited by the time, purity, and quantity requirements of NMR and X-ray crystallography. However, the level and type of details which can be determined using mass and ion mobility spectrometry have not been fully exploited. To illustrate the potential of these gas phase techniques and to expose differences among supramolecular complexes, a series of recombinant and native vaults have been compared by gas phase electrophoretic mobility molecular analyzer (GEMMA). Native vaults are 13 MDa ribonucleoprotein complexes of unknown function. The native complexes are composed of 3 proteins (MVP, VPARP, TEP1) and a short sequence of untranslated RNA.