Investigation of intact protein complexes by mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry has grown in recent years to a well-accepted and increasingly important complementary technique in structural biology. Especially electrospray ionization mass spectrometry is well suited for the detection of non-covalent protein complexes and their interactions with DNA, RNA, ligands, and cofactors. Over the last decade, significant advances have been made in the ionization and mass analysis techniques, which makes the investigation of even larger and more heterogeneous intact assemblies feasible. These technological developments have paved the way to study intact non-covalent protein-protein interactions, assembly and disassembly in real time, subunit exchange, cooperativity effects, and effects of cofactors, allowing us a better understanding of proteins in cellular processes. In this review, we describe some of the latest developments and several highlights. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.