The schematic of isomer-resolved mass spectrometry strategy and its applications.

Professor Chen Suming's research team from the Institute for Advanced Studies at Wuhan University has published its latest findings in the prestigious journal, Journal of the American Chemical Society (J.Am.Chem.Soc.).

The paper, titled Chemoselective Tagging of Protein Methacrylation, presents a novel strategy for the precise identification of isomer-specific modifications.

The research team has pioneered an innovative approach based on a "dual chemical effect" strategy. By developing a new photocatalytic thio-Michael addition reaction system, they achieved stereoselective tagging, separation, enrichment, and mass spectrometric analysis of terminal alkene structures.

This was accomplished through the selective attack of phenylthio radicals on the β-carbon of C=C bonds and the differential stability of radical intermediates, even in the presence of internal alkenes.

This strategy was used to precisely identify post-translational modifications involving α,β-unsaturated ketone isomers in proteins. The team identified dozens of previously unreported methacrylation modifications on histones, nucleoproteins, and across the entire proteome.

These findings offer critical tools and new targets for further exploration of the biological functions of these novel epigenetic modifications.