BioSun--辅助分子生物学实验设计的生物信息学软件系统

经过两年多的努力 ,军事医学科学院基础医学研究所计算生物学中心成功研发了辅助分子生物学实验设计的软件系统BioSun ,该系统主要功能有 :可视化的序列编辑器、完善的序列数据库管理系统、多种方式的序列比较、蛋白质基本性质分析 (MW、PI、… )、蛋白质功能位点及模式特异性分析、多种方式的抗原表位预测、基于随机肽库实验数据的抗原识别、蛋白质二级结构预测、基于一定字长的蛋白质与DNA组成分析、DNA模式分析、PCR实验辅助设计、转录因子结合位点预测、酶切位点分析及酶切图谱制作、基于多种算法的RNA二级结构预测、原核系统外…     

串联质谱图谱从头测序算法研究进展

近年来,基于质谱技术的高通量蛋白质组学研究发展迅速,利用串联质谱图谱鉴定蛋白质是其数据处理中一个基础而又重要的环节．由于不需要利用蛋白质序列数据库,从头测序方法能够分析新物种或者基因组未测序物种的串联质谱数据,具有数据库搜索方法不可替代的优势．简要介绍高通量串联质谱图谱从头测序问题及其研究现状．归纳出几种典型的计算策略并分析了各种策略的优缺点．总结常用的从头测序算法和软件,介绍算法评估的各种指标和常用评估数据集,概括各种算法的特点,展望未来研究可能的发展方向．     

测序级胰蛋白酶的制备工艺与质量检测简

目的：制备高纯度、酶解效率高、酶切位点专一的测序级胰蛋白酶,应用于蛋白组学研究的蛋白质鉴定与分析中。方法：取实验室自制的猪胰蛋白酶粗酶,经硼氢化钠、甲醛还原甲基化修饰抑制胰蛋白酶自水解,采用高效液相色谱仪15RPC反相柱纯化,收集对应的甲基化胰蛋白酶峰组分,冷冻干燥;甲基化修饰的胰蛋白酶进一步经甲苯磺酰苯丙氨酰氯甲酮（TPCK）修饰,以抑制糜蛋白酶等非特异性酶切活性,并经反相色谱柱再纯化,获得终产物即质谱测序级胰蛋白酶;自制的测序级胰蛋白酶经SDS-PAGE、HPLC反相色谱分析、酶比活力测定,并应用于胶内蛋白质酶切质谱鉴定氨基酸序列等,检测其纯度、酶水解效率及酶切位点特异性。结果：自制甲基化TPCK修饰的测序级胰蛋白酶纯度大于95％,酶比活力为200U/mgP（TAME）以上,质谱分析酶切特异性好;且酶的制备工艺流程稳定,可应用于测序级胰蛋白酶产品的生产与开发中。结论：制备的测序级胰蛋白酶纯度高、酶解效率优、酶切特异性强,可广泛应用于实验室中蛋白质和肽段测序鉴定、HPLC肽段谱图分析等蛋白组学研究分析中。     

家蚕丝腺蛋白质组学研究方法的建立

通过高精度的双向电泳技术对家蚕中部丝腺组织的蛋白质进行分离,采用基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱(matrix-assistedlaserdesorption/ionizationtimeofflightmassspectrometry,MALDI-TOF-MS)对其中一些表达量较高的蛋白点进行鉴定,并利用GPMAW(GeneralProtein/MassAnalysisforWindows)软件结合家蚕基因组预测的蛋白质数据库构建本地的肽质量指纹图谱数据库,对所得到的肽质量指纹图谱进行分析。研究发现,经过双向凝胶电泳及其图象分析技术,硝酸银染色和考马斯亮蓝染色分别能分离出500个以上和100个以上的蛋白点。这些蛋白质点主要集中在分子量15~90kD区域,等电点pH3·5~7之间。MALDI-TOF-MS鉴定的25个考染蛋白点中有60%以上的PMF(PeptideMassFingerprint)的信号峰较强。在数据库检索过程中,利用家蚕肽质量指纹数据库所得检索结果与在Mascot的检索结果相比,前者不仅能够准确鉴定出一些已有研究报道的蛋白,从而验证检索方法的可行性,而且还能够对一些已经被家蚕基因组数据库所预测但未曾报道的新蛋白质进行鉴定,从而建立了一整套适合于家蚕蛋白质组研究的方法,并为其它绢丝昆虫蛋白质组研究提供了重要参考。     

测序级胰蛋白酶的制备工艺与质量检测

目的:制备高纯度、酶解效率高、酶切位点专一的测序级胰蛋白酶,应用于蛋白组学研究的蛋白质鉴定与分析中。方法:取实验室自制的猪胰蛋白酶粗酶,经硼氢化钠、甲醛还原甲基化修饰抑制胰蛋白酶自水解,采用高效液相色谱仪15RPC反相柱纯化,收集对应的甲基化胰蛋白酶峰组分,冷冻干燥;甲基化修饰的胰蛋白酶进一步经甲苯磺酰苯丙氨酰氯甲酮(TPCK)修饰,以抑制糜蛋白酶等非特异性酶切活性,并经反相色谱柱再纯化,获得终产物即质谱测序级胰蛋白酶;自制的测序级胰蛋白酶经SDS-PAGE、HPLC反相色谱分析、酶比活力测定,并应用于胶内蛋白质酶切质谱鉴定氨基酸序列等,检测其纯度、酶水解效率及酶切位点特异性。结果:自制甲基化TPCK修饰的测序级胰蛋白酶纯度大于95%,酶比活力为200 U/mgP(TAME)以上,质谱分析酶切特异性好;且酶的制备工艺流程稳定,可应用于测序级胰蛋白酶产品的生产与开发中。结论:制备的测序级胰蛋白酶纯度高、酶解效率优、酶切特异性强,可广泛应用于实验室中蛋白质和肽段测序鉴定、HPLC肽段谱图分析等蛋白组学研究分析中。     

蛋白质胶内酶切技术研究进展

胶内酶切是蛋白质组研究中衔接电泳分离和质谱鉴定的重要环节,对最终的蛋白质定性和定量分析结果有显著的影响。该技术自1992年初步建立以来,一直处于不断完善中,出现了种类繁多的改进方案。为了更有效地利用胶内酶切技术,从凝胶脱色、杂质去除、蛋白酶切、肽段提取4个方面归纳整理了近年来蛋白质胶内酶切技术的主要研究进展。     

蛋白质的肽质谱指纹图分析方法的优化

肽质谱指纹图分析是一种常用的蛋白质的鉴定方法.为了提高这种方法鉴定蛋白质时序列覆盖率和准确度,以6个标准蛋白质为分析样品,对几种不同的酶解肽段的浓缩、脱盐和点样方法进行了检验和优化.结果发现,将酶解肽段的浓缩体积控制在5μl以下和采用10mmolL柠檬酸铵缓冲液板上脱盐能提高蛋白质鉴定的准确度;在点样的时候,采用先点样品再点基质的方法能明显提高匹配肽段的个数和信噪比.这些优化的样品制备方法明显地提高了MALDITOF质谱肽质谱指纹图分析方法鉴定蛋白质的可靠性.     

大鼠海马的表达蛋白质组学实验研究

目的：用蛋白质组学方法初步分析大鼠海马蛋白质的表达。方法：提取大鼠海马蛋白质样品后,用双向凝胶电泳对其分离,经考马斯亮蓝染色后,产生大鼠海马蛋白质双向凝胶电泳图谱。从凝胶上切割分离的蛋白质,经胰蛋白酶胶内酶解,通过基质辅助激光解吸／电离飞行时间质谱（MALDI-TOF-MS）对酶解后的肽段进行分析。根据肽段质谱数据,经数据库（NCBI）检索,对蛋白质进行鉴定。结果：鉴定了37种具有明确功能的蛋白质,它们分别属于代谢酶、细胞骨架蛋白、热休克蛋白、抗氧化蛋白、信号传导蛋白、蛋白酶体相关蛋白、神经元特异蛋白及神经胶质蛋白。另外,鉴定了3种未知功能蛋白。结论：为建立大鼠海马蛋白质组数据库提供必要的资料,为在大鼠模型上研究神经疾病发病机理奠定基础。     

生物活性肽蛋白质组分分离与鉴定方法的建立

目的:评估大规模蛋白质组分离与鉴定技术策略在生物活性肽研究中的应用价值。方法:采用全溶液酶解及胶内分离与酶解方法分离生物活性肽;肽段离子阱串联质谱鉴定时,采用碰撞诱导解离与电子转移解离2种互补的肽段碎裂模式。结果:几种方法联用,鉴定到复杂生物活性肽样品中236个多肽大分子;不同分离和鉴定策略显示出良好的互补性,基于凝胶电泳分离的策略提供了最好的鉴定效果。结论:大规模的蛋白质组学分离与鉴定技术策略可以有效应用于生物活性肽组分的表征。     

鳞翅目基因组IIB型内切酶位点的统计分析

IIB型限制内切酶能够识别并切割特异酶切位点两端特定距离的DNA,形成粘性末端的30 bp左右的等长DNA片段。利用其特性与限制性酶切位点关联测序技术(RAD)相结合发展出2b-RAD简化基因组测序技术,应用于遗传图谱构建、种群遗传结构分析、性状定位以及细菌分型等多种研究领域。构建2b-RAD测序文库之前,需要对基因组中的IIB型限制内切酶位点进行预测与统计分析,制定有效的测序文库构建方案。本文利用Python语言构建分析基因组中IIB型限制内切酶位点的流程,预测并统计6个鳞翅目代表物种基因组含有的8个商业化IIB型限制内切酶的酶切位点,比较了各个基因组与IIB型限制内切酶之间含有的酶切位点总量、重复序列数量以及酶切间隔长度的关系,为在昆虫基因组中进一步试行2b-RAD研究提供了参考。     

Analyzing protease specificity and detecting in vivo proteolytic events using tandem mass spectrometry

Although trypsin remains the most commonly used protease in MS, other proteases may be employed for increasing peptide coverage or generating overlapping peptides. Knowledge of the accurate specificity rules of these proteases is helpful for database search tools to detect peptides, and becomes crucial when label‐free MS is used to discover in vivo proteolytic cleavages. Since in vivo cleavages are inferred by subtracting digestion‐induced cleavages from all observed cleavages, it is important to ensure that the specificity rule used to identify digestion‐induced cleavages are broad enough to capture even minor cleavages produced in digestion, to avoid erroneously identifying them as in vivo cleavages. In this study, we describe MS‐Proteolysis, a software tool for identifying putative sites of in vivo proteolytic cleavage using label‐free MS. The tool is used in conjunction with digestion by trypsin and three other proteases, whose specificity rules are revised and extended before inferring proteolytic cleavages. Finally, we show that comparative analysis of multiple proteases can be used to detect putative in vivo proteolytic sites on a proteome‐wide scale.     

Specificity of trypsin digestion and conformational flexibility at different sites of unfolded lysozyme

Fourteen tryptic peptides and nine intermediates were identified as products of trypsin digestion of reduced and S-3-(trimethylated amino) propylated lysozyme. Kinetics of the appearance and disappearance of these products were observed by monitoring the peak areas on the chromatogram. In spite of the complicated reaction pathways, kinetics of the digestion of proteins and several intermediate products show simple decay curves with a single rate constant. In this paper, the trypsin susceptibility of the individual cleavage site is defined as a hydrolytic rate constant of the susceptible peptide bond in the presence of 10 nM trypsin. The cleavage sites of unfolded lysozyme are classified into two groups in terms of the trypsin susceptibility: one has a high susceptibility (10–20 h^?1) and the other a low susceptibility (1.0–2.0 h^?1). In the unfolded state of lysozyme, in conclusion, the region from residues 15 to 61 has a strong resistance to trypsin digestion; on the other hand, the C-terminal half of the polypeptide chain is flexible enough to fit into the active site of trypsin. In addition, six kinds of pentapeptides were synthesized as analogues of lysozyme fragments including Arg 14, Arg 21, Lys 33, Arg 45, Arg 61, and Arg 73. Kinetics of typtic digestion of them were observed. Both k_cat and K_M were determined for these synthetic pentapeptides. The susceptibility of each cleavage site in pentapeptides is determined and compared with that corresponding in proteins. The susceptibility is usually higher when the susceptible peptide chain is flexible. However, susceptibilities of a few sites in proteins are lower than those in pentapeptides. This means that the peptapeptides, this means that the peptide chains tend to fold locally to prevent trypsin from binding to the sites. It was found that the sites of Arg 21 and Arg 45 are indeed resistant to trypsin, but the site of Lys 33 is not so much, although the hydrolytic rate at Lys 33 itself is extremely slow. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The proteomic analysis improved by cleavage kinetics‐based fractionation of tryptic peptides

Selective enrichment of specific peptides is an effective way to identify low abundance proteins. Fractionation of peptides prior to mass spectrometry is another widely used approach to reduce sample complexity in order to improve proteome coverage.In this study, we designed a multi‐stage digestion strategy to generate peptides with different trypsin cleavage kinetics. It was found that each of the collected peptide fractions yielded many new protein identifications compared to the control group due to the reduced complexity. The overlapping peptides identified between adjacent fractions were very low, indicating that each fraction had different sets of peptides. The multi‐stage digestion strategy separates tryptic peptides with different cleavage kinetics while RPLC separates peptides with different hydrophobicity. These two separation strategies were highly orthogonal, and showed an effective multidimensional separation to improve proteome coverage.     

Limited proteolysis as a probe of the conformation and nucleic acid binding regions of nucleolin.

Nucleolin, also called protein C23, is a RNA-associated protein implicated in the early stages of ribosome assembly. To study the general conformation and map the nucleic acid binding regions, rat nucleolin was subjected to limited proteolysis using trypsin and chymotrypsin in the presence or absence of poly(G). The cleavage sites were classified according to their locations in the three putative domains: the highly polar amino-terminal domain, the central nucleic acid binding domain, which contains four 90-residue repeats, and the carboxyl-terminal domain, which is rich is glycine, dimethylarginine, and phenylalanine. The most labile sites were found in basic segments of the amino-terminal domain. This region was stabilized by Mg2+. At low enzyme concentrations, cleavage by trypsin or chymotrypsin in the amino-terminal domain was enhanced by poly(G). Trypsin produced a relatively stable 48-kDa fragment containing the central and carboxyl-terminal domains. The enhanced cleavage suggests that binding of nucleic acid by the central domain alters the conformation of the amino-terminal domain, exposing sites to proteolytic cleavage. At moderate enzyme concentrations, the 48-kDa fragment was protected by poly(G) against tryptic digestion. At the highest enzyme concentrations, both enzymes cleaved near the boundaries between repeats 2, 3, and 4 with some sites protected by poly(G), suggesting that the repeats themselves form compact units. The carboxyl-terminal domain was resistant to trypsin but was cleaved by chymotrypsin either in the presence or in the absence of poly(G), indicating exposure of some phenylalanines in this region. These studies provide a general picture of the topology of nucleolin and suggest that the nucleic acid binding region communicates with the amino-terminal domain.     

Improve the coverage for the analysis of phosphoproteome of HeLa cells by a tandem digestion approach

Complete coverage of all phosphorylation sites in a proteome is the ultimate goal for large-scale phosphoproteome analysis. However, only making use of one protease trypsin for protein digestion cannot cover all phosphorylation sites, because not all tryptic phosphopeptides are detectable in MS. To further increase the phosphoproteomics coverage of HeLa cells, we proposed a tandem digestion approach by using two different proteases. By combining the data set of the first Glu-C digestion and the second trypsin digestion, the tandem digestion approach resulted in the identification of 8062 unique phosphopeptides and 8507 phosphorylation sites in HeLa cells. The conventional trypsin digestion approach resulted in the identification of 3891 unique phosphopeptides and 4647 phosphorylation sites. It was found that the phosphorylation sites identified from the above two approaches were highly complementary. By combining above two data sets, in total we identified 10899 unique phosphopeptides and 11262 phosphorylation sites, corresponding to 3437 unique phosphoproteins with FDR < 1% at peptide level. We also compared the kinase motifs extracted from trypsin, Glu-C, or a second trypsin digestion data sets. It was observed that basophilic motifs were more frequently found in the trypsin and the second trypsin digestion data sets, and the acidic motifs were more frequently found in the Glu-C digestion data set. These results demonstrated that our tandem digestion approach is a good complement to the conventional trypsin digestion approach for improving the phosphoproteomics analysis coverage of HeLa cells.     

Structural domains of ribosomal protein S8 and their relationship to ribosomal RNA binding

Escherichia coli ribosomal protein S8 has been subjected to mild proteolytic digestion in order to search for structural domains within the protein [1]. A characteristic fragment produced in high yield after chymotrypsin treatment has been located with the protein sequence. Circular dichroism has shown this domain to be rich in α helix. However, the fragment loses its ability to bind to 16 S rRNA as does a similar fragment produced by trypsin cleavage. The intact protein is required for rRNA binding and is highly protected against proteolytic digestion when bound to the RNA.     

Catalytic and structural properties of trypsin-treated 4-aminobutyrate aminotransferase

4-Aminobutyrate aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.19, 4 aminobutyrate:2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase) is cleaved by trypsin, yielding an enzymatically active species which can be separated from the split peptides by gel filtration. The shortened enzyme derivative gives one band (Mr = 95,000) on polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis. Changes in protein conformation induced by tryptic digestion were studied by fluorescence spectroscopy. The native enzyme tagged with the chromophore fluorescein yields a rotational relaxation time of 106 ns, whereas the trypsin-digested enzyme gives a rotational relaxation time of 33 ns. The decrease in rotational relaxation time is attributed to flexibility of the polypeptide chain with enhanced rotational freedom of the probe covalently linked to one thiol group. The reactivity of sulfhydryl groups toward 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) is also affected by trypsin cleavage. More--SH groups (2.6/dimer) become reactive toward 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) as a result of trypsin digestion. Local conformational fluctuations are induced as a result of tryptic cleavage, but the catalytic sites remain intact. The peptides released from 4-aminobutyrate aminotransferase were characterized by fingerprint analysis and their amino acid composition determined.     

Topological analysis of the pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase of Escherichia coli using proteolytic enzymes

The pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase of Escherichia coli has an alpha 2 beta 2 structure (alpha: Mr, 54,000; beta: Mr, 48,700). Hydropathy analysis of the amino acid sequences suggested that the 10 kDa C-terminal portion of the alpha subunit and the N-terminal 20-25 kDa region of the beta subunit are composed of transmembranous alpha-helices. The topology of these subunits in the membrane was investigated using proteolytic enzymes. Trypsin digestion of everted cytoplasmic membrane vesicles released a 43 kDa polypeptide from the alpha subunit. The beta subunit was not susceptible to trypsin digestion. However, it was digested by proteinase K in everted vesicles. Both alpha and beta subunits were not attacked by trypsin and proteinase K in right-side out membrane vesicles. The beta subunit in the solubilized enzyme was only susceptible to digestion by trypsin if the substrates NADP(H) were present. NAD(H) did not affect digestion of the beta subunit. Digestion of the beta subunit of the membrane-bound enzyme by trypsin was not induced by NADP(H) unless the membranes had been previously stripped of extrinsic proteins by detergent. It is concluded that binding of NADP(H) induces a conformational change in the transhydrogenase. The location of the trypsin cleavage sites in the sequences of the alpha and beta subunits were determined by N- and C-terminal sequencing. A model is proposed in which the N-terminal 43 kDa region of the alpha subunit and the C-terminal 30 kDa region of the beta subunit are exposed on the cytoplasmic side of the inner membrane of E. coli. Binding sites for pyridine nucleotide coenzymes in these regions were suggested by affinity chromatography on NAD-agarose columns.     

Deoxyribonuclease I binding masks the major tryptic cleavage sites on actin

The formation of a 1:1 molecular complex of deoxyribonuclease I with muscle G-actin protects both proteins against proteolytic attack by trypsin. After 1$\text{1}\text{2}$ hours of digestion, negligible proteolysis of the complex is observed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, while G-actin alone is rapidly broken down to a trypsin resistant core. The binding of deoxyribonuclease I to actin apparently masks the major tryptic cleavage sites (arginine-62 and lysine-68) on the latter protein.     

Ionic-strength-dependent changes in the structure of the major protein of the human erythrocyte membrane.

The effect of ionic strength on the proteolysis by trypsin of the major membrane-penetrating protein (polypeptide 3) in the erythrocyte membrane was studied. Both the intracellular and extracellular regions of the protein are susceptible to trypsin proteolysis under hypo-osmotic conditions, whereas under iso-osmotic conditions the extracellular region of the protein is resistant to trypsin, and the intracellular region yields only two cleavage products with trypsin. Studies of the fragments obtained from polypeptide 3 by trypsin digestion under iso-osmotic conditions of 'ghosts' radioiodinated with lactoperoxidase confirmed our earlier conclusions that the polypeptide chain of polypeptide 3 traverses the membrane twice. Ionic-strength-dependent changes were also observed in the incorporation of iodine by lactoperoxidase into the individual extracellular tyrosine sites of the protein. These results show that polypeptide 3 undergoes ionic-strength-dependent changes in structure.