Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Structure And Dynamics Of The Membrane Protein Bacteriorhodopsin Studied By Mass Spectrometry, Yan Pan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Membrane proteins continue to represent a major challenge for most analytical techniques. Using bacteriorhodopsin (BR) as model system, this work aims to develop mass spectrometry (MS)-based approaches for exploring the structure, dynamics and folding of membrane proteins.

As the first step, BR in its native lipid environment was exposed to hydroxyl radicals, which were produced by laser photolysis of hydrogen peroxide. It was found that the resulting methionine (Met) labeling pattern was consistent with the known BR structure. This finding demonstrates that laser-induced oxidative Met labeling can provide structural information on membrane proteins. In subsequent experiments, the effects of different …

Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Charged Nanodroplets, Elias Ahadi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Charged nanodroplets represent a fascinating research area due to their unique dynamics and physical properties. These nanodroplets play a key role in electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), which is a method for analyzing organic/inorganic molecules as well as proteins and other biomolecular species. The mechanism whereby these analytes are transferred into the gas phase as intact ions remains incompletely understood. Two competing models have been proposed to explain the process, the charged residue model (CRM) and the ion evaporation model (IEM). Under the CRM, evaporation of the droplet proceeds until dryness, at which point the analyte ion is left behind. Under …