May 23, 2019
Research Highlight
Characterizing Biomolecules in Complex Mixtures
The Use of Triboelectric Nanogenerator Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry on prebiotic-like mixtures
An artist’s concept of the early Earth. While still fairly inhospitable compared to today’s standards, the early Earth may have had a more moderate climate and ocean temperature and pH than had been thought.Image credit: NASA.
Astrobiologists have reported a method for improving the use of ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry (UHR MS) for the chemical characterization of biomolecules in complex mixtures. Researchers used a Triboelectric Nanogenerator (TENG), glass nanoelectrospray emitters, and a UHR Orbitrap mass spectrometer to analyze molecules known as depsipeptides. These molecules are polymers with backbones made of amides and esters, and could have been precursors to peptide formation on the early Earth.
The study outlines how characterization of depsipeptide libraries in an origins-of-life context is improved by coupling TENG nanoelectrospray to UHR MS. The method could be useful for studies of biomolecules in mixtures that are ‘prebiotic-like,’ meaning mixtures that are thought to be similar to those that could have persisted on the early Earth.
The paper, “Compositional Characterization of Complex Protopeptide Libraries via Triboelectric Nanogenerator Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry,” was published in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. The work was performed at the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The CCE is a collaborative program supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the NASA Astrobiology Program.