A novel derivatization method with 5‐bromonicotinic acid N‐hydroxysuccinimide for determination of the amino acid sequences of peptides

We have developed a novel method that effectively identifies the N-terminal product ions produced in the tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis of peptides done in conjunction with the specific derivatization of the N-terminal amino group using 5-bromonicotinic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (BrNA-NHS). Electrospray ionization with low-energy collision-induced dissociation (CID) MS/MS clearly differentiated the N-terminal product ions labeled with the 5-bromonicotinyl group from other ions, on the basis of the appearance of CID peaks with a doublet pattern characteristically separated by 2 mass units produced by the equal natural abundances of 79Br and 81Br. The tracing of a series of these bromine-containing product ions allows the easy amino acid sequencing of peptides. Using Gln-Arg-Leu-Gln-Ser-Asn-Gln-Leu-Lys as the test peptide, we found that within 30 minutes at pH 6.5 and 37 °C its α-amino group was completely acylated with BrNA-NHS (peptide: BrNA-NHS = 1:40; mol/mol). The ϵ-amino group of the C-terminal lysine residue was less likely to be acylated under these conditions, being only partly modified (about 20%). This suggests the possibility of keeping the ϵ-amino group free from acylation. The method was successfully applied to the determination of the amino acid sequences of peptides from porcine kidney aminoacylase I produced by digestion with lysyl endopeptidase and with Staphylococus aureus V8 protease. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.