Identification of the tyrosine nitration sites in human endothelial nitric oxide synthase by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

Michael A. Zickus, Fabio Vasconcelos Fonseca, Monorama Tummala, Stephen M. Black, Victor Ryzhov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The formation of nitric oxide (NO) in biological systems has led to the discovery of a number of post-translational protein modifications that can affect biological conditions such as vasodilation. Studies both from our laboratory and others have shown that beside its effect on cGMP generation from soluble guanylate cylcase, NO can produce protein modifications through both S-nitrosylation of cysteine residues. Previously, we have identified the potential S-nitrosylation sites on endothelial NO synthase (eNOS). Thus, the goal of this study was to further increase our understanding of reactive nitrogen protein modifications of eNOS by identifing tyrosine residues within eNOS that are susceptible to nitration in vitro. To accomplish this, nitration was carried out using tetranitromethane followed by tryptic digest of the protein. The resulting tryptic peptides were analyzed by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and the position of nitrated tyrosines ìn eNOS were identified. The eNOS sequence contains 30 tyrosine residues and our data indicate that multiple tyrosine residues are capable of being nitrated. We could identify 25 of the 30 residues in our tryptic digests and 19 of these were susceptible to nitration. Interstingly, our data identified four tyrosine residues that can be modified by nitration that are located in the region of eNOS responsible for the binding to heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), which is responsible for ensuring efficient coupling of eNOS.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)239-247
Number of pages9
JournalEuropean Journal of Mass Spectrometry
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008

Keywords

  • LC-MS
  • Nitration
  • Tetranitromethane
  • Tyrosine
  • eNOS

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Spectroscopy

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