Surface-Induced Dissociation Reveals the Quaternary Substructure of a Heterogeneous Non-Covalent Protein Complex

摘要

As scientists begin to appreciate the extent to which quaternary structure facilitates protein function, determination of the subunit arrangement within non-covalent protein complexes is increasingly important. While native mass spectrometry shows promise for the study of non-covalent complexes, few developments have been made towards the determination of subunit architecture, and no mass spectrometry activation method yields complete topology information. Here we illustrate the activation and dissociation by surface-induced dissociation of a heterohexamer, toyocamycin nitrile hydratase, directly into its constituent trimers. We propose that the single-step nature of this activation in combination with high energy deposition allows for dissociation prior to significant unfolding or other large-scale rearrangement. This method can potentially allow for dissociation of a protein complex into subcomplexes facilitating the mapping of subunit contacts and thus determination of quaternary structure of protein complexes.