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- Gopakumar, Geethanjali, 1992-, et al.
(författare)
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X-ray Induced Fragmentation of Protonated Cystine
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Protein structure determination using high-intensity X-ray sources induces damage in the protein. Disulfide bridges, formed between two cysteine amino acid residues stabilize the protein structure. Owing to the higher absorption cross-section of sulfur for X-ray photons, and a large number of electrons released from sulfur atoms, these disulfide bridges are hot spots for a higher level of noise in structural studies. But it is yet to be understood how exactly the damage occurs through the interaction of the disulfide bridges with photons. Here we study the fragmentation of protonated cystine in the gas phase, which is the dimer of cysteine, by irradiation with X-rays across the sulfur L-edge using an electrospray ionization source (ESI) in combination with an ion trap. This is complemented with the calculation of the sulfur NEXAFS spectrum on the level of Restricted Open-Shell Configuration Interaction (ROCIS) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations for molecular orbital visualization as well as Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations for the fragmentation of triply charged cystine ions. We have deduced a possible pathway of fragmentation upon excitation and ionization of S 2p electrons by combining the experiments and simulations. The disulfide bridge breaks for resonant excitation at lower energies but remains intact upon higher energy resonant excitation and upon ionization of S 2p. The larger fragments formed subsequently break into smaller fragments.
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