Application of electron transfer dissociation (ETD) for the analysis of posttranslational modifications

Despite major advantages in the field of proteomics, the analysis of PTMs still poses a major challenge; thus far, preventing insights into the role and regulation of protein networks. Additionally, top-down sequencing of proteins is another powerful approach to reveal comprehensive information for biological function. A commonly used fragmentation technique in MS-based peptide sequencing is CID. As CID often fails in PTM-analysis and performs best on doubly-charged, short and middle-sized peptides, confident peptide identification may be hampered. A newly developed fragmentation technique, namely electron transfer dissociation (ETD), supports both, PTM- and top-down analysis, and generally results in more confident identification of long, highly charged or modified peptides. The following review presents the theoretical background of ETD and its technical implementation in mass analyzers. Furthermore, current improvements of ETD and approaches for the PTM-analysis and top-down sequencing are introduced. Alternating both fragmentation techniques, ETD and CID, increases the amount of information derived from peptide fragmentation, thereby enhancing both, peptide sequence coverage and the confidence of peptide and protein identification.     

Methods for analyzing peptides and proteins on a chromatographic timescale by electron-transfer dissociation mass spectrometry

Advancement in proteomics research relies on the development of new, innovative tools for identifying and characterizing proteins. Here, we describe a protocol for analyzing peptides and proteins on a chromatographic timescale by coupling nanoflow reverse-phase (RP) liquid chromatography (LC) to electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) mass spectrometry. For this protocol, proteins can be proteolytically digested before ETD analysis, although digestion is not necessary for all applications. Proteins 相似文献   

Improved peptide identification by targeted fragmentation using CID, HCD and ETD on an LTQ-Orbitrap Velos

Over the past decade peptide sequencing by collision induced dissociation (CID) has become the method of choice in mass spectrometry-based proteomics. The development of alternative fragmentation techniques such as electron transfer dissociation (ETD) has extended the possibilities within tandem mass spectrometry. Recent advances in instrumentation allow peptide fragment ions to be detected with high speed and sensitivity (e.g., in a 2D or 3D ion trap) or at high resolution and high mass accuracy (e.g., an Orbitrap or a ToF). Here, we describe a comprehensive experimental comparison of using ETD, ion-trap CID, and beam type CID (HCD) in combination with either linear ion trap or Orbitrap readout for the large-scale analysis of tryptic peptides. We investigate which combination of fragmentation technique and mass analyzer provides the best performance for the analysis of distinct peptide populations such as N-acetylated, phosphorylated, and tryptic peptides with up to two missed cleavages. We found that HCD provides more peptide identifications than CID and ETD for doubly charged peptides. In terms of Mascot score, ETD FT outperforms the other techniques for peptides with charge states higher than 2. Our data shows that there is a trade-off between spectral quality and speed when using the Orbitrap for fragment ion detection. We conclude that a decision-tree regulated combination of higher-energy collisional dissociation (HCD) and ETD can improve the average Mascot score.     

Protein fragmentation via liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry: the use of limited sequence information in structural characterization

Fragmentation and "top-down" sequencing of intact proteins by mass spectrometry (MS) is most commonly performed by infusion of protein solutions into Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometers. However, the high cost of this instrumentation, coupled with the need to infuse "clean" solutions (lacking standard biological buffers), limits broad application of this technique. The current study describes an alternative approach to top-down sequencing using in-source fragmentation on quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-Tof) instrumentation coupled with reversed-phase liquid chromatography (LC). Application of this technique to purified recombinant samples yielded protein fragments during routine LC-MS analysis. The presence of multiple N- and C-terminal fragments allowed localization of structural modifications without proteolytic digestion. The method was extended to complex samples by using LC conditions that provided high-resolution protein separation. Utility of the method was illustrated by real-time monitoring of protein modifications occurring in reconstituted apoptosomes. These experiments illustrate that intact protein mass and limited sequence information can be obtained simultaneously on an LC timescale. This approach will allow a wide variety of laboratories to routinely apply top-down sequencing to problems in structural characterization, protein purification, and biomarker identification.     

The utility of ETD mass spectrometry in proteomic analysis

Mass spectrometry has played an integral role in the identification of proteins and their post-translational modifications (PTM). However, analysis of some PTMs, such as phosphorylation, sulfonation, and glycosylation, is difficult with collision-activated dissociation (CAD) since the modification is labile and preferentially lost over peptide backbone fragmentation, resulting in little to no peptide sequence information. The presence of multiple basic residues also makes peptides exceptionally difficult to sequence by conventional CAD mass spectrometry. Here we review the utility of electron transfer dissociation (ETD) mass spectrometry for sequence analysis of post-translationally modified and/or highly basic peptides. Phosphorylated, sulfonated, glycosylated, nitrosylated, disulfide bonded, methylated, acetylated, and highly basic peptides have been analyzed by CAD and ETD mass spectrometry. CAD fragmentation typically produced spectra showing limited peptide backbone fragmentation. However, when these peptides were fragmented using ETD, peptide backbone fragmentation produced a complete or almost complete series of ions and thus extensive peptide sequence information. In addition, labile PTMs remained intact. These examples illustrate the utility of ETD as an advantageous tool in proteomic research by readily identifying peptides resistant to analysis by CAD. A further benefit is the ability to analyze larger, non-tryptic peptides, allowing for the detection of multiple PTMs within the context of one another.     

Electron Capture Dissociation Mass Spectrometry in Characterization of Peptides and Proteins

Electron capture dissociation (ECD) represents one of the most recent and significant advancements in tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for the identification and characterization of polypeptides. In comparison with the conventional fragmentation techniques, such as collisionally activated dissociation (CAD), ECD provides more extensive sequence fragments, while allowing the labile modifications to remain intact during backbone fragmentation—an important attribute for characterizing post-translational modifications. Herein, we present a brief overview of the ECD technique as well as selected applications in characterization of peptides and proteins. Case studies including characterization and localization of amino acid glycosylation, methionine oxidation, acylation, and “top–down” protein mass spectrometry using ECD will be presented. A recent technique, coined as electron transfer dissociation (ETD), will be also discussed briefly.     

Top-down protein sequencing and MS3 on a hybrid linear quadrupole ion trap-orbitrap mass spectrometer

Top-down proteomics, the analysis of intact proteins (instead of first digesting them to peptides), has the potential to become a powerful tool for mass spectrometric protein characterization. Requirements for extremely high mass resolution, accuracy, and ability to efficiently fragment large ions have often limited top-down analyses to custom built FT-ICR mass analyzers. Here we explore the hybrid linear ion trap (LTQ)-Orbitrap, a novel, high performance, and compact mass spectrometric analyzer, for top-down proteomics. Protein standards from 10 to 25 kDa were electrosprayed into the instrument using a nanoelectrospray chip. Resolving power of 60,000 was ample for isotope resolution of all protein charge states. We achieved absolute mass accuracies for intact proteins between 0.92 and 2.8 ppm using the "lock mass" mode of operation. Fifty femtomole of cytochrome c applied to the chip resulted in spectra with excellent signal-to-noise ratio and only low attomole sample consumption. Different protein charge states were dissociated in the LTQ, and the sensitivity of the orbitrap allowed routine, high resolution, and high mass accuracy fragment detection. This resulted in unambiguous charge state determination of fragment ions and identification of unmodified and modified proteins by database searching. Protein fragments were further isolated and fragmented in the LTQ followed by analysis of MS(3) fragments in the orbitrap, localizing modifications to part of the sequence and helping to identify the protein with these small peptide-like fragments. Given the ready availability and ease of operation of the LTQ-Orbitrap, it may have significant impact on top-down proteomics.     

Performance characteristics of electron transfer dissociation mass spectrometry

We performed a large scale study of electron transfer dissociation (ETD) performance, as compared with ion trap collision-activated dissociation (CAD), for peptides ranging from approximately 1000 to 5000 Da (n approximately 4000). These data indicate relatively little overlap in peptide identifications between the two methods ( approximately 12%). ETD outperformed CAD for all charge states greater than 2; however, regardless of precursor charge a linear decrease in percent fragmentation, as a function of increasing precursor m/z, was observed with ETD fragmentation. We postulate that several precursor cation attributes, including peptide length, charge distribution, and total mass, could be relevant players. To examine these parameters unique ETD-identified peptides were sorted by length, and the ratio of amino acid residues per precursor charge (residues/charge) was calculated. We observed excellent correlation between the ratio of residues/charge and percent fragmentation. For peptides of a given residue/charge ratio, there is no correlation between peptide mass and percent fragmentation; instead we conclude that the ratio of residues/charge is the main factor in determining a successful ETD outcome. As charge density decreases so does the probability of non-covalent interactions that can bind a newly formed c/z-type ion pair. Recently we have described a supplemental activation approach (ETcaD) to convert these non-dissociative electron transfer product ions to useful c- and z-type ions. Automated implementation of such methods should remove this apparent precursor m/z ceiling. Finally, we evaluated the role of ion density (both anionic and cationic) and reaction duration for an ETD experiment. These data indicate that the best performance is achieved when the ion trap is filled to its space charge limit with anionic reagents. In this largest scale study of ETD to date, ETD continues to show great promise to propel the field of proteomics and, for small- to medium-sized peptides, is highly complementary to ion trap CAD.     

Advances in top-down proteomics for disease biomarker discovery

Top-down mass spectrometry strategies allow identification and characterization of proteins and protein networks by direct fragmentation. These analytical processes involve a panel of fragmentation mechanisms, some of which preserve protein post-translational modifications. Thus top-down is of special interest in clinical biochemistry to probe modified proteins as potential disease biomarkers. This review describes separating methods, mass spectrometry instrumentation, bioinformatics, and theoretical aspects of fragmentation mechanisms used for top-down analysis. The biological interest of this strategy is extensively reported regarding the characterization of post-translational modifications in biochemical pathways and the discovery of biomarkers. One has to bear in mind that quantitative aspects that are beyond the focus of this review are also of critical important for biomarker discovery. The constant evolution of technologies makes top-down strategies crucial players in clinical and basic proteomics.     

基于电子捕获裂解/电子转运裂解串联质谱技术的蛋白质组学研究

蛋白质组学的兴起带动了质谱技术的快速发展,而质谱技术的进步则拓宽了蛋白质组学研究问题的广度.最近10年内,肽段或完整蛋白质在质谱仪中的裂解技术——电子捕获裂解(electron capture dissociation,ECD)与电子转运裂解(electron transfer dissociation,ETD)逐渐发展起来.ECD和ETD在蛋白质组学中的应用,特别是在蛋白质的翻译后修饰鉴定和自顶而下(Top-down)的完整蛋白质裂解研究中已经展示出了诱人的前景.对ECD和ETD的基本原理、质谱特点、仪器实现、数据解析算法与软件开发,以及在蛋白质组学中的应用进展等方面进行了比较系统全面的阐述,并对当前的研究问题、面临的技术挑战与未来的发展趋势等方面作了深入剖析.     

PTM MarkerFinder,a software tool to detect and validate spectra from peptides carrying post‐translational modifications

Mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of peptides carrying post‐translational modifications is challenging due to the instability of some modifications during MS analysis. However, glycopeptides as well as acetylated, methylated and other modified peptides release specific fragment ions during CID (collision‐induced dissociation) and HCD (higher energy collisional dissociation) fragmentation. These fragment ions can be used to validate the presence of the PTM on the peptide. Here, we present PTM MarkerFinder, a software tool that takes advantage of such marker ions. PTM MarkerFinder screens the MS/MS spectra in the output of a database search (i.e., Mascot) for marker ions specific for selected PTMs. Moreover, it reports and annotates the HCD and the corresponding electron transfer dissociation (ETD) spectrum (when present), and summarizes information on the type, number, and ratios of marker ions found in the data set. In the present work, a sample containing enriched N‐acetylhexosamine (HexNAc) glycopeptides from yeast has been analyzed by liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry on an LTQ Orbitrap Velos using both HCD and ETD fragmentation techniques. The identification result (Mascot .dat file) was submitted as input to PTM MarkerFinder and screened for HexNAc oxonium ions. The software output has been used for high‐throughput validation of the identification results.     

Top Down proteomics: Facts and perspectives

The rise of the “Top Down” method in the field of mass spectrometry-based proteomics has ushered in a new age of promise and challenge for the characterization and identification of proteins. Injecting intact proteins into the mass spectrometer allows for better characterization of post-translational modifications and avoids several of the serious “inference” problems associated with peptide-based proteomics. However, successful implementation of a Top Down approach to endogenous or other biologically relevant samples often requires the use of one or more forms of separation prior to mass spectrometric analysis, which have only begun to mature for whole protein MS. Recent advances in instrumentation have been used in conjunction with new ion fragmentation using photons and electrons that allow for better (and often complete) protein characterization on cases simply not tractable even just a few years ago. Finally, the use of native electrospray mass spectrometry has shown great promise for the identification and characterization of whole protein complexes in the 100 kDa to 1 MDa regime, with prospects for complete compositional analysis for endogenous protein assemblies a viable goal over the coming few years.     

Electron transfer dissociation of iTRAQ labeled peptide ions

Triply and doubly charged iTRAQ ( isobaric tagging for relative and absolute quantitation) labeled peptide cations from a tryptic peptide mixture of bovine carbonic anhydrase II were subjected to electron transfer ion/ion reactions to investigate the effect of charge bearing modifications associated with iTRAQ on the fragmentation pattern. It was noted that electron transfer dissociation (ETD) of triply charged or activated ETD (ETD and supplemental collisional activation of intact electron transfer species) of doubly charged iTRAQ tagged peptide ions yielded extensive sequence information, in analogy with ETD of unmodified peptide ions. That is, addition of the fixed charge iTRAQ tag showed relatively little deleterious effect on the ETD performance of the modified peptides. ETD of the triply charged iTRAQ labeled peptide ions followed by collision-induced dissociation (CID) of the product ion at m/ z 162 yielded the reporter ion at m/ z 116, which is the reporter ion used for quantitation via CID of the same precursor ions. The reporter ion formed via the two-step activation process is expected to provide quantitative information similar to that directly produced from CID. A 103 Da neutral loss species observed in the ETD spectra of all the triply and doubly charged iTRAQ labeled peptide ions is unique to the 116 Da iTRAQ reagent, which implies that this process also has potential for quantitation of peptides/proteins. Therefore, ETD with or without supplemental collisional activation, depending on the precursor ion charge state, has the potential to directly identify and quantify the peptides/proteins simultaneously using existing iTRAQ reagents.     

Electron transfer dissociation mass spectrometry in proteomics

Mass spectrometry has rapidly evolved to become the platform of choice for proteomic analysis. While CID remains the major fragmentation method for peptide sequencing, electron transfer dissociation (ETD) is emerging as a complementary method for the characterization of peptides and post-translational modifications (PTMs). Here, we review the evolution of ETD and some of its newer applications including characterization of PTMs, non-tryptic peptides and intact proteins. We will also discuss some of the unique features of ETD such as its complementarity with CID and the use of alternating CID/ETD along with issues pertaining to analysis of ETD data. The potential of ETD for applications such as multiple reaction monitoring and proteogenomics in the future will also be discussed.     

Electron transfer dissociation of peptides generated by microwave D-cleavage digestion of proteins

The nonenzymatic digestion of proteins by microwave D-cleavage is an effective technique for site-specific cleavage at aspartic acid (D). This specific cleavage C-terminal to D residues leads to inherently large peptides (15-25 amino acids) that are usually relatively highly charged (above +3) when ionized by electrospray ionization (ESI) due to the presence of several basic amino acids within their sequences. It is well-documented that highly charged peptide ions generated by ESI are well-suited for electron transfer dissociation (ETD), which produces c- and z-type fragment ions via gas-phase ion/ion reactions. In this paper, we describe the sequence analysis by ETD tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) of multiply charged peptides generated by microwave D-cleavage of several standard proteins. Results from ETD measurements are directly compared to CID MS/MS of the same multiply charged precursor ions. Our results demonstrate that the nonenzymatic microwave D-cleavage technique is a rapid (<6 min) and specific alternative to enzymatic cleavage with Lys-C or Asp-N to produce highly charged peptides that are amenable to informative ETD.     

Analysis of Intact Monoclonal Antibody IgG1 by Electron Transfer Dissociation Orbitrap FTMS

The primary structural information of proteins employed as biotherapeutics is essential if one wishes to understand their structure–function relationship, as well as in the rational design of new therapeutics and for quality control. Given both the large size (around 150 kDa) and the structural complexity of intact immunoglobulin G (IgG), which includes a variable number of disulfide bridges, its extensive fragmentation and subsequent sequence determination by means of tandem mass spectrometry (MS) are challenging. Here, we applied electron transfer dissociation (ETD), implemented on a hybrid Orbitrap Fourier transform mass spectrometer (FTMS), to analyze a commercial recombinant IgG in a liquid chromatography (LC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) top-down experiment. The lack of sensitivity typically observed during the top-down MS of large proteins was addressed by averaging time-domain transients recorded in different LC-MS/MS experiments before performing Fourier transform signal processing. The results demonstrate that an improved signal-to-noise ratio, along with the higher resolution and mass accuracy provided by Orbitrap FTMS (relative to previous applications of top-down ETD-based proteomics on IgG), is essential for comprehensive analysis. Specifically, ETD on Orbitrap FTMS produced about 33% sequence coverage of an intact IgG, signifying an almost 2-fold increase in IgG sequence coverage relative to prior ETD-based analysis of intact monoclonal antibodies of a similar subclass. These results suggest the potential application of the developed methodology to other classes of large proteins and biomolecules.Top-down mass spectrometry (MS)¹ (1–3) has continued to demonstrate its particular advantages over traditionally employed bottom-up MS strategies (4). Specifically, top-down MS allows the characterization of specific protein isoforms originating from the alternative splicing of mRNA that code single nucleotide polymorphisms and/or post-translational modifications (PTMs) of protein species (5). Intact protein molecular weight (MW) determination and subsequent gas-phase fragmentation of selected multiply charged protein ions (referred to as tandem MS or MS/MS) theoretically might result in complete protein sequence coverage and precise assignment of the type and position of PTMs, amino acid substitutions, and C- or N-terminal truncations (6), whereas the bottom-up MS approach allows only the identification of a certain protein family when few or redundant peptides are found for a particular protein isoform. At a practical level, however, top-down MS-based proteomics struggles not only with the single- or multi-dimensional separation of undigested proteins, which demonstrates lower reproducibility and repeatability than for peptides, but also with technical limitations present in even state-of-the-art mass spectrometers. The outcome of a top-down MS experiment depends indeed on the balance between the applied resolution of the mass spectrometer and its sensitivity. The former is required for unambiguous assignment of ion isotopic clusters in both survey and MS/MS scans, whereas the latter is ultimately dependent on the scan speed of the mass analyzer, which determines the number of scans that can be accumulated for a given analyte ion on the liquid chromatography (LC) timescale to enhance the resulting signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Until recently, the instrument of choice for top-down MS has been the Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer, primarily because of its superior resolving power and the availability of electron capture dissociation for the efficient MS/MS of large biomolecules (7, 8). However, this solution has been shown to have some limitations in the analysis of large proteins (9). The main issue, as described by Compton et al. (10), is that the SNR in Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS) is inversely proportional to the width of the isotopic and charge state distributions (11), which both increase as a function of MW. Particularly, the SNR dramatically decreases with MW under standard on-line LC-MS/MS operating conditions if isotopic resolution is required. It is noteworthy that such SNR reduction can affect not only intact mass measurements, but also the subsequent MS/MS performance.The most widely employed solution for improving top-down analysis is thus a substantial reduction of the protein mixture complexity, for example, through off-line sample prefractionation (12). Furthermore, when the MW exceeds 100 kDa, proteins are often analyzed via direct infusion after off-line purification of the single isoform or species of interest (13). Overall, these strategies aim to improve the quality of mass spectra, specifically their SNR, by increasing the number of scans dedicated to each selected isoform or species. However, off-line intact protein analysis has limitations, including sample degradation and modification (e.g., oxidation during long off-line measurements and sample storage). The time required for multistep LC-based protein purification can also be substantial.Electron capture dissociation (ECD) (14, 15) and electron transfer dissociation (ETD) (16) are ion activation techniques that allow polypeptide fragmentation with reduced PTM losses (17, 18). Nevertheless, ECD and ETD generally provide larger sequence coverage for intact proteins than slow-heating activation methods such as collision induced dissociation (CID) and infrared multiple photon dissociation (19, 20). Furthermore, ECD and ETD are known to cleave disulfide bonds, a fundamental feature for the analysis of proteins in their native state (i.e., without cysteine reduction and alkylation) (21–23).The structural analysis of high MW intact proteins with MS has garnered much recent attention in the literature (24, 25), mainly because of the improved capabilities offered by rapidly developing sample preparation, protein separation, and mass spectrometric methods and techniques. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) proteins are antibodies with an MW of about 150 kDa that are composed of two identical sets of light and glycosylated heavy chains with both intra- and intermolecular disulfide bridges (Fig. 1) (26). IgGs represent an attractive target for structural analysis method development, given their high importance as biotherapeutics (27). A unit-mass resolution mass spectrum demonstrating an isotopic distribution of an isolated charge state of a 148 kDa IgG1 has been recently achieved with FT-ICR MS equipped with 9.4 T superconducting magnet and a statically harmonized ICR cell (24). However, further analytical improvements are needed to achieve routine and reproducible MS operation at the required level of resolution and sensitivity.Open in a separate windowFig. 1.Schematic representation of IgG1. Two identical light (blue) and two identical heavy (fucsia) chains form the intact IgG. The light chain is composed of a variable domain (V_L) and a constant domain (C_L), whereas the heavy chain comprises one variable domain (V_H) and three constant domains (C_H1–3). Each domain contains an intramolecular disulfide bridge (in red); intermolecular disulfide bridges link the heavy chains to each other (two bonds) and each heavy chain to one light chain (one bond). Each heavy chain includes an N-glycosylation site (located at Asn²⁹⁷; here, a G0F/G0F glycosylation is shown).Fragmentation of intact antibodies in the gas phase following the top-down MS approach has been previously attempted without precursor ion charge state isolation by means of nozzle-skimmer CID on a linear trap quadrupole (LTQ)-Orbitrap™ (28, 29) and with precursor ion isolation via ETD on a high resolution quadrupole time-of-flight (qTOF) mass spectrometer (25). Relative to the results previously obtained with slow-heating MS/MS methods, the ETD qTOF MS/MS demonstrated substantially higher sequence coverage, reaching 15% for human and 21% for murine IgGs. Important for future top-down proteomics development for complex protein mixtures, the ETD qTOF MS/MS results were obtained on the LC timescale. To increase the sequence coverage and confidence in product ion assignment, a substantial increase in SNR was achieved by averaging MS/MS data from up to 10 identical LC-MS/MS experiments. The high complexity of the product ion population reduced the effective resolution to about 30,000, presumably limiting the assignment of overlapping high charge state product ions in the 1000–2000 m/z range. Even higher peak complexity was observed in the region of charge reduced species and complementary heavy product ions, above 3000 m/z. Finally, numerous disulfide bonds drastically reduced MS/MS efficiency in the disulfide bond-protected regions.Here we demonstrate that ETD-enabled hybrid linear ion trap Orbitrap FTMS allows us to further improve the top-down ETD-based LC-MS/MS of monoclonal antibodies, introduced earlier for TOF-based MS. To fully take advantage of the high resolving power of Orbitrap MS/MS for increasing both the number of assigned product ions and the confidence of the assignments, maintaining an LC-MS/MS setup useful in a general proteomics workflow for protein desalting and separation, we averaged time-domain transients (derived from separated LC-MS/MS runs) before Fourier transform signal processing.     

Electron-capture dissociation tandem mass spectrometry

Electron capture dissociation (ECD) is a new fragmentation technique used in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry and is complementary to traditional tandem mass spectrometry techniques. Disulfide bonds, normally stable to vibrational excitation, are preferentially cleaved in ECD. Fragmentation is fast and specific and labile post-translational modifications and non-covalent bonds often remain intact after backbone bond dissociation. ECD provides more extensive sequence coverage in polypeptides, and at higher electron energies even isoleucine and leucine are distinguishable. In biotechnology, the main area of ECD application is expected to be the top-down verification of DNA-predicted protein sequences, de novo sequencing, disulfide bond analysis and the combined top-down/bottom-up analysis of post-translational modifications.     

The utility of proteases in proteomics,from sequence profiling to structure and function analysis

In mass spectrometry (MS)-based bottom-up proteomics, protease digestion plays an essential role in profiling both proteome sequences and post-translational modifications (PTMs). Trypsin is the gold standard in digesting intact proteins into small-size peptides, which are more suitable for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation and tandem MS (MS/MS) characterization. However, protein sequences lacking Lys and Arg cannot be cleaved by trypsin and may be missed in conventional proteomic analysis. Proteases with cleavage sites complementary to trypsin are widely applied in proteomic analysis to greatly improve the coverage of proteome sequences and PTM sites. In this review, we survey the common and newly emerging proteases used in proteomics analysis mainly in the last 5 years, focusing on their unique cleavage features and specific proteomics applications such as missing protein characterization, new PTM discovery, and de novo sequencing. In addition, we summarize the applications of proteases in structural proteomics and protein function analysis in recent years. Finally, we discuss the future development directions of new proteases and applications in proteomics.