Ultrahigh-mass mass spectrometry of single biomolecules and bioparticles

Since the advent of soft ionization methods, mass spectrometry (MS) has found widespread application in the life sciences. Mass is now known to be a critical parameter for characterization of biomolecules and their complexes; it is also a useful parameter to characterize bioparticles such as viruses...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnual review of analytical chemistry (Palo Alto, Calif.) Vol. 2; p. 169
Main Author Chang, Huan-Cheng
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.01.2009
Subjects
Animals
Cytological Techniques - instrumentation
Cytological Techniques - methods
Equipment Design
Humans
Ions - analysis
Mass Spectrometry - instrumentation
Mass Spectrometry - methods
Proteins - chemistry
Viruses - chemistry
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Summary:Since the advent of soft ionization methods, mass spectrometry (MS) has found widespread application in the life sciences. Mass is now known to be a critical parameter for characterization of biomolecules and their complexes; it is also a useful parameter to characterize bioparticles such as viruses and cells. However, because of the genetic diversity of these entities, it is necessary to measure their masses individually and to obtain the corresponding mean masses and mass distributions. Here, I review recent technological developments that enable mass measurement of ultrahigh-mass biomolecules and bioparticles at the single-ion level. Some representative examples include cryodetection time-of-flight MS of single-megadalton protein ions, Millikan-type mass measurements of single viruses in a cylindrical ion trap, and charge-detection quadrupole ion trap MS of single whole cells. I also discuss the promises and challenges of these new technologies in real-world applications.
ISSN:1936-1335
DOI:10.1146/annurev-anchem-060908-155245