Comparison of peptide mass mapping and electron capture dissociation as assays for histone posttranslational modifications

Posttranslational modifications of core histones play a critical role in the structure of chromatin and the regulation of gene activities. improved techniques for determining these modification sites may lead to a better understanding of histone regulation at the molecular level. LC-MS peptide mass mapping was performed on pepsin, trypsin and Glu-C digests of bovine thymus H4 using a QqTOF instrument. The well established modification sites of H4 (acetylation of K8, 12, 16 and methylation of K20) were observed in addition to several recently discovered modifications including: methylation of K31, 44, 59 and acetylation of K20, 77, 79. For comparison, electron capture dissociation (ECD) was performed on intact H4 along with several peptides from enzymatic digestion. The results from the ECD experiments of histone H4 indicated the acetylation of K5, 12, 16, 31, 91 and the methylation of K20 and 59 in good agreement with the result from peptide mapping. The work is dedicated to Alan G. Marshall on his 60th birthday. His endeavors in the advancement of FT-ICR facilitated experiments reported herein. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.