Energetics and Structural Characterization of Isomers Using Ion Mobility and Gas-phase H/D Exchange: Learning from Lasso Peptides

State-of-the-art characterization of proteins using mass spectrometry namely relies on fragmentation methods which allows exploring featured dissociative reaction pathways. These pathways are often initiated by a series of potentially informative mass-constant conformational changes that are nonetheless frequently overlooked by lack of adequate investigation techniques. In the present study, we propose a methodology to readily address both structural and energetic aspects of stereoisomerization reactions using ion mobility coupled with mass spectrometry. To this end, a commercial spectrometer was used as a reactor comprising an energy resolved collisional activation step intended at promoting controlled conformational changes and a structural assignment step dedicated to the identification of the generated isomers. This identification relies on ion mobility and other on-line coupled techniques, namely an originally designed gas-phase H/D exchange experiment. We here apply this methodology to characterize the isomerization kinetics of capistruin, a 19-residue long lasso-folded peptide. We expect this approach to bring insights into the physical origin of global dissociation thresholds monitored in tandem mass spectrometry experiments and to set a promising basis for quantitative investigations of the stability of different molecular folds.