Product ion yields in post-source decay and time-resolved photodissociation at 193 and 266 nm were measured for some peptide ions with a histidine residue ([HF 6 ϩ H] ϩ , [F 6 H ϩ H] ϩ , and [F 3 HF 3 ϩ H] ϩ ) formed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI). Compared with similar data for peptide ions without any basic residue reported previously, significant reduction in dissociation efficiency was observed. Internal temperatures (T) of the peptide ions and their dissociation kinetic parameters-the critical energy (E 0 ) and entropy (⌬S ‡ )-were determined by the method reported previously. Slight decreases in E 0 , ⌬S ‡ , and T were responsible for the histidine effect-reduction in dissociation rate constant. Regardless of the presence of the residue, ⌬S ‡ was far more negative than previous quantum chemical results. Based on this, we propose the existence of transition structures in which the nitrogen atoms in the histidine residue or at the N-terminus coordinate to the reaction centers. Reduction in T in the presence of a histidine residue could not be explained based on popular models for ion formation in MALDI, such as the gas-phase proton transfer model. T andem mass spectral information-list of product ions formed from a precursor ion and their relative intensities-is tremendously useful for peptide and protein sequencing [1]. Pioneering studies on the product ion species formed from protonated peptides generated by fast atom bombardment and the mechanistic explanations for their formation were made by Martin and Biemann [2]. Extensive investigations followed [3][4][5], which were made mostly for protonated peptides generated by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) [6] and electrospray ionization (ESI) [7]. For small model peptide ions, investigations beyond simple mechanistic interpretation have been reported, such as the quantum chemical search for reaction paths [8 -10]. However, there has not been much study on kinetics of peptide ion dissociation [11].Tandem mass spectral patterns for protonated peptides are affected by factors, such as the charge state, the number of arginine residue, and the energy regime [2,3,12,13]. For singly protonated peptides-these will be called peptide ions from now on-without an arginine residue, b and y types (see reference [2] for product ion symbols) are the major product ions regardless of the energy regime. Oxazolone pathways [4, 8 -10] have been proposed to explain their formation, which consist of the migration of the additional proton to an amide nitrogen, rate-determining cleavage of the protonated amide bond via a five-membered ring transition structure, formation of a proton-bound dimer of an oxazolone derivative and a smaller peptide, and its breakup. For peptide ions with an arginine residue, b/y channels (rearrangement) are dominant in the lowenergy regime [3], such as in low-energy collisionally activated dissociation (CAD) and post-source decay (PSD). In the high-energy regime, such as in highenergy CAD [2] and ultraviolet p...