ANALYTICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTROSPRAY AND NANOELECTROSPRAY MASS-SPECTROMETRY IN COMBINATION WITH LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF PROTEINS

Mass spectrometry has significantly extended its applicability in the area of characterization of protein structures. Electrospray ionizatio n enables on-line coupling with liquid chromatography which has become a powerful tool for the characterization of peptide and protein mixtu res. The most recent development of a nanoelectrospray source, using c apillary forces for a particularly mild analyte transport and ionizati on into the mass spectrometer, opens a wide field for applications to protein structure analysis. In this paper, the analytical development of liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and nano-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, adapted to an electro spray ionization quadrupole mass spectrometer and its application to t he characterization of noncovalent protein complexes are described. (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.