Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Mol Cell Proteomics. 2011 Jul;10(7):M111.009407. doi: 10.1074/mcp.M111.009407.
Electrospray ionization is today the most widely used ionization technique in chemical and biochemical analysis. Interfaced with a mass spectrometer it allows the investigation of the molecular composition of liquid samples. With electrospray a large variety of chemical substances can be ionized. There is no limitation in mass which thus enables even the investigation of large noncovalent protein complexes. Its high ionization efficiency profoundly changed biomolecular sciences because proteins can be identified and quantified on trace amounts in a high throughput fashion. This review article focuses mainly on the exploration of the underlying ionization mechanism. Some ionization characteristics are discussed that are related to this mechanism. Typical spectra of peptides, proteins, and noncovalent complexes are shown and the quantitative character of spectra is highlighted. Finally the possibilities and limitations in measuring the association constant of bivalent noncovalent complexes are described.
电喷雾电离是目前化学和生化分析中应用最广泛的一种电离技术。与质谱仪联用，可以研究液体样品的分子组成。通过电喷雾，可以使各种化学物质电离。其质量没有限制，因此甚至可以研究大的非共价蛋白质复合物。它的高电离效率极大地改变了生物分子科学，因为可以在痕量水平上以高通量的方式鉴定和定量蛋白质。本文主要集中于对基本电离机制的探索。讨论了一些与该机制相关的电离特性。展示了肽、蛋白质和非共价复合物的典型谱图，并强调了谱图的定量特征。最后描述了测量二价非共价复合物的结合常数的可能性和局限性。
