The fragmentation characteristics of protonated alanylglycylglycine, [AGG ϩ H] ϩ , were investigated by tandem mass spectrometry in MALDI-TOF/TOF, ion trap, and hybrid sector instruments. b 2 is the most abundant fragment ion in MALDI-TOF/TOF, ion trap, and hybrid sector metastable ion (MI) experiments, while y 2 is slightly more abundant than b 2 in collision activated dissociation (CAD) performed in the sector instrument. The A-G amide bond is cleaved on the a 1 -y 2 pathway resulting in a proton-bound dimer of GG and MeCHϭNH. Depending on the fragmentation conditions employed, this dimer can then (1) [3,4] have enabled tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to become the standard tool for elucidation of peptide sequence. Gas-phase protonated peptides can be isolated, activated (usually by collision(s) with an inert gas), dissociated, and detected. The resulting spectra show that protonated peptides undergo backbone cleavages, dissociations in the side chains and losses of small neutrals (water, ammonia, carbon monoxide), or an amalgamation of these [5][6][7][8]. Experimental and computational studies have been undertaken on the backbone and side-chain fragmentations [9 -32] as well as neutral losses [11, 18, 19, 27-29, 31, 32].Peptide fragment ion spectra are utilized to sequence peptides and proteins with the help of various bioinformatics tools. Candidate peptides and their theoretical MS/MS spectra are generated in silico using protein and/or DNA databases and fragmentation models. The in silico spectra are then compared with the experimental MS/MS spectrum to find the most closely matching sequences. The success of this computer-aided peptide sequencing approach is directly related to the quality of the applied fragmentation models that summarize our present understanding of gas-phase peptide chemistry [7].The "mobile proton" fragmentation model [26,33] takes into account the energetics and reactivity of the various protonation sites of peptides. Upon excitation, the extra proton is transferred from a usually unreactive site of higher gas-phase basicity (arginine, R, or lysine, K, side chain or the N-terminal amino group) to form an energetically less favored but reactive, backboneamide-protonated species. Protonation of the amide Address reprint requests to Dr.