Native mass spectrometry (nMS) is
evolving into a workhorse for
structural biology. The plethora of online and offline preparation,
separation, and purification methods as well as numerous ionization
techniques combined with powerful new hybrid ion mobility and mass
spectrometry systems has illustrated the great potential of nMS for
structural biology. Fundamental to the progression of nMS has been
the development of novel activation methods for dissociating proteins
and protein complexes to deduce primary, secondary, tertiary, and
quaternary structure through the combined use of multiple MS/MS technologies.
This review highlights the key features and advantages of surface
collisions (surface-induced dissociation, SID) for probing the connectivity
of subunits within protein and nucleoprotein complexes and, in particular,
for solving protein structure in conjunction with complementary techniques
such as cryo-EM and computational modeling. Several case studies highlight
the significant role SID, and more generally nMS, will play in structural
elucidation of biological assemblies in the future as the technology
becomes more widely adopted. Cases are presented where SID agrees
with solved crystal or cryoEM structures or provides connectivity
maps that are otherwise inaccessible by “gold standard”
structural biology techniques.