Protein fragmentation for ion traps

Bruker Daltonics has released ETD II, an ETD (electron transfer dissociation) module for its HCT-Ultra high-capacity ion traps.

ETD is a peptide and protein fragmentation technique that preserves functionally important post-translational modifications (PTMs), such as phosphorylations or glycosylations. With ETD in a spherical high-capacity ion trap, the sequencing and identification of proteins (as well as the identification and localisation of PTMs) are facilitated with greatly improved scores and confidence.

ETD also overcomes the low-mass cutt-off in ion traps. Due to its high ion trap mass accuracy, the system enables powerful de novo sequency capabilities, even for difficult to dissociate proteins.

Due to the HCT-Ultra’s m/z range of 3000 and its mass resolution that can resolve 3+ and 4+ charge states of peptides on-the-fly at full analytical speed, ETD/PTR using this system can be used for proteins up to and above 12 kDalton, providing a high effective protein mass range.