文摘
Analyzing purified membrane proteins and membrane protein complexes by mass spectrometry has been notoriously challenging and required highly specialized buffer conditions, sample preparation methods, and apparatus. Here we show that a standard matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) protocol, if used in combination with a high-mass detector, allows straightforward mass spectrometric measurements of integral membrane proteins and their complexes, directly following purification in detergent solution. Molecular weights can be determined precisely (mass error 鈮?0.1%) such that high-mass MALDI-MS was able to identify the site for N-linked glycosylation of the eukaryotic multidrug ABC transporter Cdr1p without special purification steps, which is impossible by any other current approach. After chemical cross-linking with glutaraldehyde in the presence of detergent micelles, the subunit stoichiometries of a series of integral membrane protein complexes, including the homomeric PglK and the heteromeric BtuCD as well as BtuCDF, were unambiguously resolved. This thus adds a valuable tool for biophysical characterization of integral membrane proteins.