Highly robust, automated, and sensitive online TiO2-based phosphoproteomics applied to study endogenous phosphorylation in Drosophila melanogaster

Reversible protein phosphorylation ranks among the most important post-translational modifications, and elucidation of phosphorylation sites is essential to understand the regulation of key cellular processes such as signal transduction. Enrichment of phosphorylated peptides is a prerequisite for successful analysis due to their low stoichiometry, heterogeneity, and low abundance. Enrichment is often performed manually, which is inherently labor-intensive and a major hindrance in large-scale analyses. Automation of the enrichment method would vastly improve reproducibility and thereby facilitate 'high-throughput' phosphoproteomics research. Here, we describe a robust and automated online TiO 2-based two-dimensional chromatographic approach to selectively enrich phosphorylated peptides from digests of complete cellular lysates. We demonstrate method enhancement for both adsorption and desorption of phosphorylated peptides resulting in lower limits of detection. Phosphorylated peptides from a mere 500 attomole tryptic digest of a protein mixture were easily detected. With the combination of strong cation exchange chromatography with the online TiO 2 enrichment, 2152 phosphopeptides were enriched from 250 microg of protein originating for the cell lysate of Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells. This is a 4-fold improvement when compared to an enrichment strategy based solely on strong cation exchange/LC-MS. Phosphopeptide enrichment methods are intrinsically biased against relatively basic phosphopeptides. Analysis of the p I distributions of the enriched/detected phosphopeptides showed that the p I profile resembles that of a total Drosophila protein digest, revealing that the current described online procedure does not discriminate against either more acidic or basic phosphopeptides. However, careful comparison of our new and existing phosphopeptide enrichment techniques also reveal that, like many enrichment techniques, we are still far from comprehensive phosphoproteomics analyses, and we describe several factors that still require to be addressed. Still, as the online approach allows the complementary measurements of phosphopeptides and their nonphosphorylated counterparts in subsequent analyses, this method is well-suited for automated quantitative phosphoproteomics.     

Preparation of Fe3O4@ZrO2 core-shell microspheres as affinity probes for selective enrichment and direct determination of phosphopeptides using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry

Fe3O4@ZrO2 microspheres with well-defined core-shell structure were prepared and applied for the highly selective enrichment of phosphopeptides from tryptic digest product of proteins. To successfully coat iron oxide microspheres with uniform zirconia shell, magnetic Fe3O4 microspheres were first synthesized via a solvothermal reaction, followed by being coated with a thin layer of carbon by polymerization and carbonization of glucose through hydrothermal reaction. Finally, with the use of the Fe3O4@C microspheres as templates, zirconium isopropoxide was prehydrolyzed and absorbed onto the microspheres and eventually converted into zirconia by calcinations. The as-prepared Fe3O4@ZrO2 core-shell microspheres were used as affinity probes to selectively concentrate phosphopeptides from tryptic digest of beta-casein, casein, and five protein mixtures to exemplify their selective enrichment ability of phosphopeptides from complex protein samples. In only 0.5 min, phosphopeptides sufficient for characterization by MALDI-MS could be enriched by the Fe3O4@ZrO2 microspheres. The results demonstrate that Fe3O4@ZrO2 microspheres have the excellent selective enrichment capacity for phosphopeptides from complex samples. The performance of the Fe3O4@ZrO2 microspheres was further compared with commercial IMAC beads for the enrichment of peptides originating from tryptic digestion of beta-casein and bovine serum albumin (BSA) with a molar ratio of 1:50, and the results proved a stronger selective ability of Fe3O4@ZrO2 microspheres over IMAC beads. Finally, the Fe3O4@ZrO2 microspheres were successfully utilized for enrichment of phosphopeptides from human blood serum without any other purification procedures.     

Analysis of protein phosphorylation by monolithic extraction columns based on poly(divinylbenzene) containing embedded titanium dioxide and zirconium dioxide nano-powders

The potential of an organic monolith with incorporated titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) and zirconium dioxide (ZrO(2)) nanoparticles was evaluated for the selective enrichment of phosphorylated peptides from tryptic digests. A pipette tip was fitted with a monolith based on divinylbenzene (DVB) of highly porous structure, which allows sample to pass through the monolithic bed. The enrichment of phosphopeptides was enhanced by increasing the pipetting cycles during the sample preparation and a higher recovery could be achieved with adequate buffer systems. A complete automated process was developed for enrichment of phosphopeptides leading to high reproducibility and resulting in a robust method designed to minimize analytical variance while providing high sensitivity at high sample throughput. The effect of particle size on the selectivity of phosphopeptides was investigated by comparative studies with nano- and microscale TiO(2) and ZrO(2) powders. Eleven phosphopeptides from alpha-casein digest could be recovered by an optimized mixture of microscale TiO(2)/ZrO(2) particles, whereas nine additional phosphopeptides could be retained by the same mixture of nano-structured material. When compared to conventional immobilized metal-ion affinity chromatography and commercial phosphorylation-enrichment kits, higher selectivity was observed in case of self fabricated tips. About 20 phosphopeptides could be retained from alpha-casein and five from beta-casein digests by using TiO(2) and ZrO(2) based extraction tips. Further selectivity for phosphopeptides was demonstrated by enriching a digest of in vitro phosphorylated extracellular signal regulated kinase 1 (ERK1). Two phosphorylated peptides of ERK1 could be identified by MALDI-MS/MS measurements and a following MASCOT database search.     

Enhancing the identification of phosphopeptides from putative basophilic kinase substrates using Ti (IV) based IMAC enrichment

Metal and metal oxide chelating-based phosphopeptide enrichment technologies provide powerful tools for the in-depth profiling of phosphoproteomes. One weakness inherent to current enrichment strategies is poor binding of phosphopeptides containing multiple basic residues. The problem is exacerbated when strong cation exchange (SCX) is used for pre-fractionation, as under low pH SCX conditions phosphorylated peptides with multiple basic residues elute with the bulk of the tryptic digest and therefore require more stringent enrichment. Here, we report a systematic evaluation of the characteristics of a novel phosphopeptide enrichment approach based on a combination of low pH SCX and Ti(4+)-immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) comparing it one-to-one with the well established low pH SCX-TiO(2) enrichment method. We also examined the effect of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFP), trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), or 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) in the loading buffer, as it has been hypothesized that high levels of TFA and the perfluorinated solvent HFP improve the enrichment of phosphopeptides containing multiple basic residues. We found that Ti(4+)-IMAC in combination with TFA in the loading buffer, outperformed all other methods tested, enabling the identification of around 5000 unique phosphopeptides containing multiple basic residues from 400 μg of a HeLa cell lysate digest. In comparison, ～ 2000 unique phosphopeptides could be identified by Ti(4+)-IMAC with HFP and close to 3000 by TiO(2). We confirmed, by motif analysis, the basic phosphopeptides enrich the number of putative basophilic kinases substrates. In addition, we performed an experiment using the SCX/Ti(4+)-IMAC methodology alongside the use of collision-induced dissociation (CID), higher energy collision induced dissociation (HCD) and electron transfer dissociation with supplementary activation (ETD) on considerably more complex sample, consisting of a total of 400 μg of triple dimethyl labeled MCF-7 digest. This analysis led to the identification of over 9,000 unique phosphorylation sites. The use of three peptide activation methods confirmed that ETD is best capable of sequencing multiply charged peptides. Collectively, our data show that the combination of SCX and Ti(4+)-IMAC is particularly advantageous for phosphopeptides with multiple basic residues.     

Large-scale phosphoproteome analysis of human liver tissue by enrichment and fractionation of phosphopeptides with strong anion exchange chromatography

The mixture of phosphopeptides enriched from proteome samples are very complex. To reduce the complexity it is necessary to fractionate the phosphopeptides. However, conventional enrichment methods typically only enrich phosphopeptides but not fractionate phosphopeptides. In this study, the application of strong anion exchange (SAX) chromatography for enrichment and fractionation of phosphopeptides was presented. It was found that phosphopeptides were highly enriched by SAX and majority of unmodified peptides did not bind onto SAX. Compared with Fe(3+) immobilized metal affinity chromatography (Fe(3+)-IMAC), almost double phosphopeptides were identified from the same sample when only one fraction was generated by SAX. SAX and Fe(3+)-IMAC showed the complementarity in enrichment and identification of phosphopeptides. It was also demonstrated that SAX have the ability to fractionate phosphopeptides under gradient elution based on their different interaction with SAX adsorbent. SAX was further applied to enrich and fractionate phosphopeptides in tryptic digest of proteins extracted from human liver tissue adjacent to tumorous region for phosphoproteome profiling. This resulted in the highly confident identification of 274 phosphorylation sites from 305 unique phosphopeptides corresponding to 168 proteins at false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.96%.     

Improved titanium dioxide enrichment of phosphopeptides from HeLa cells and high confident phosphopeptide identification by cross-validation of MS/MS and MS/MS/MS spectra

Enrichment is essential for phosphoproteome analysis because phosphorylated proteins are usually present in cells in low abundance. Recently, titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been demonstrated to enrich phosphopeptides from simple peptide mixtures with high specificity; however, the technology has not been optimized. In the present study, significant non-specific bindings were observed when proteome samples were applied to TiO2 columns. Column wash with an NH4Glu solution after loading peptide mixtures significantly increased the efficiency of TiO2 phosphopeptide enrichment with a recovery of up to 84%. Also, for proteome samples, more than a 2-fold increase in unique phosphopeptide identifications has been achieved. The use of NH4Glu for a TiO2 column wash does not significantly reduce the phosphopeptide recovery. A total of 858 phosphopeptides corresponding to 1034 distinct phosphosites has been identified from HeLa cells using the improved TiO2 enrichment procedure in combination with data-dependent neutral loss nano-RPLC-MS2-MS3 analysis. While 41 and 35% of the phosphopeptides were identified only by MS2 and MS3, respectively, 24% was identified by both MS2 and MS3. Cross-validation of the phosphopeptide assignment by MS2 and MS3 scans resulted in the highest confidence in identification (99.5%). Many phosphosites identified in this study appear to be novel, including sites from antigen Ki-67, nucleolar phosphoprotein p130, and Treacle protein. The study also indicates that evaluation of confidence levels for phosphopeptide identification via the reversed sequence database searching strategy might underestimate the false positive rate.     

生物质谱结合IMAC亲和提取和磷酸酶水解分析蛋白质磷酸化修饰

蛋白质磷酸化是生物体内非常重要的翻译后修饰方式 ,对磷酸化蛋白质的分析及磷酸化位点的确定有助于理解与其相关的生物功能。基质辅助激光解吸 /电离飞行时间质谱和电喷雾 四极杆 飞行时间质谱这两种生物质谱仪在蛋白质鉴定和翻译后修饰分析中发挥着重要作用。固相金属亲和色谱可选择性亲和提取肽混合物中的磷酸肽 ,结合磷酸酶水解实验和基质辅助激光解吸 /电离飞行时间质谱分析可确定肽混合物中的磷酸肽 ,最后用电喷雾 四极杆 飞行时间串联质谱分析磷酸肽的序列 ,结合数据库检索确定磷酸化位点。     

Rapid enrichment of phosphopeptides and phosphoproteins from complex samples using magnetic particles coated with alumina as the concentrating probes for MALDI MS analysis

In this study, we used nanocomposite magnetic particles coated with alumina as the affinity probes to selectively concentrate phosphorylated peptides and proteins from a low volume of sample solution. Tryptic digest products of phosphoproteins including alpha and beta-caseins, human protein phosphatase inhibitor 1, nonfat milk, egg white, and a cell lysate were used as the samples to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. In only 30 and 90 s, phosphopeptides and phosphoproteins sufficient for characterization by MALDI-MS were enriched by the particles, respectively. Proteins trapped on the particles could be directly digested on the particles. The same particles in the digest solution were employed for enrichment of phosphopeptides. We estimated the required time for performing the enrichment of phosphopeptides from complex samples and characterization by MALDI MS was within 5 min. A small volume (50 microL) and a low concentration (5 x 10(-10) M) of tryptic digest product of a phosphoprotein sample could be dramatically enriched and characterized using this approach.     

Comparison of ERLIC-TiO2, HILIC-TiO2, and SCX-TiO2 for global phosphoproteomics approaches

Reversible phosphorylations play a critical role in most biological pathways. Hence, in signaling studies great effort has been put into identification of a maximum number of phosphosites per experiment. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based phosphoproteomics approaches have been proven to be an ideal analytical method for mapping of phosphosites. However, because of sample complexity, fractionation of phosphopeptides prior to MS analysis is a crucial step. In the current study, we compare the chromatographic strategies electrostatic repulsion-hydrophilic interaction chromatography (ERLIC), hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC), and strong cation exchange chromatography (SCX) for their fractionation behavior of phosphopeptides. In addition, we investigate the use of repetitive TiO(2)-based enrichment steps for a maximum identification of phosphopeptides. On the basis of our results, SCX yields the highest number of identified phosphopeptides, whereas ERLIC is optimal for the identification of multiphosphorylated peptides. Consecutive incubations of fractions and flow-through by TiO(2) beads enrich qualitatively different sets of phosphopeptides, increasing the number of identified phosphopeptides per analysis.     

Novel Fe3O4@TiO2 core-shell microspheres for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides in phosphoproteome analysis

Due to the dynamic nature and low stoichiometry of protein phosphorylation, enrichment of phosphorylated peptides from proteolytic mixtures is often necessary prior to their characterization by mass spectrometry. Immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) is a popular way to enrich phosphopeptides; however, conventional IMAC lacks enough specificity for efficient phosphoproteome analysis. In this study, novel Fe 3O 4@TiO 2 microspheres with well-defined core-shell structure were prepared and developed for highly specific purification of phosphopeptides from complex peptide mixtures. The enrichment conditions were optimized using tryptic digests of beta-casein, and the high specificity of the Fe 3O 4@TiO 2 core-shell microspheres was demonstrated by effectively enriching phosphopeptides from the digest mixture of alpha-casein and beta-casein, as well as a five-protein mixture containing nonphosphoproteins (bovine serum albumin (BSA), myoglobin, cytochrome c) and phosphoproteins (ovalbumin and beta-casein). The Fe 3O 4@TiO 2 core-shell microspheres were further successfully applied for the nano-LC-MS/MS analysis of rat liver phosphoproteome, which resulted in identification of 56 phosphopeptides (65 phosphorylation sites) in mouse liver lysate in a single run, indicating the excellent performance of the Fe 3O 4@TiO 2 core-shell microspheres.     

Highly selective and rapid enrichment of phosphorylated peptides using gallium oxide-coated magnetic microspheres for MALDI-TOF-MS and nano-LC-ESI-MS/MS/MS analysis

In this work, we present, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of the utility of iron oxide magnetic microspheres coated with gallium oxide for the highly selective enrichment of phosphopeptide prior to mass spectrometric analysis. These microspheres that we prepared not only have a shell of gallium oxide, giving them a high-trapping capacity for the phosphopeptides, but also their magnetic property enables easy isolation by positioning an external magnetic field. Tryptic digest products of phosphoproteins including beta-casein, ovalbumin, casein, as well as five protein mixtures were used as the samples to exemplify the feasibility of this approach. In very short time (only 0.5 min), phosphopeptides sufficient for characterization by MALDI-TOF-MS were selectively enriched by the Ga(2)O(3)-coated Fe(3)O(4) microspheres. The performance of the Ga(2)O(3)-coated Fe(3)O(4) microspheres were further compared with Fe(3+)-immobilized magnetic silica microspheres, commercial Fe(3+)-IMAC resin, and TiO2 beads for enrichment of peptides originating from tryptic digestion of beta-casein and BSA with a molar ratio of 1:50, and the results proved a stronger selective ability of Ga(2)O(3)-coated Fe(3)O(4) microspheres over the other materials. Finally, the Ga(2)O(3)-coated Fe(3)O(4) microspheres were successfully utilized for enrichment of phosphopeptides from digestion products of rat liver extract. All results show that Ga(2)O(3)-coated Fe(3)O(4) microsphere is an effective material for selective isolation and concentration of phosphopeptides.     

Zirconium phosphonate-modified porous silicon for highly specific capture of phosphopeptides and MALDI-TOF MS analysis

Phosphorylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications of proteins, which modulates a wide range of biological functions and activity of proteins. The analysis of phosphopeptides is still one of the most challenging tasks in proteomics research by mass spectrometry. In this study, a novel phosphopeptide enrichment approach based on the strong interaction of zirconium phosphonate (ZrP) modified surface with phosphopeptides has been developed. ZrP modified porous silicon (ZrP-pSi) wafer was prepared to specifically capture the phosphopeptides from complex peptide mixtures, and then the captured phosphopeptides were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS by directly placing the wafer on a MALDI target. The phosphopeptide enrichment and MALDI analysis were both performed on the ZrP-pSi wafer which significantly reduced the sample loss and simplified the analytical procedures. The prepared ZrP-pSi wafer has been successfully applied for the enrichment of phosphopeptides from the tryptic digest of standard phosphoproteins beta-casein and alpha-casein. The excellent selectivity of this approach was demonstrated by analyzing phosphopeptides in the digest mixture of beta-casein and bovine serum albumin with molar ratio of 1:100. High detection sensitivity has been achieved for the analysis of the phosphopeptides from tryptic digestion of 2 fmol beta-casein on the ZrP-pSi surface.     

Application of open tubular capillary columns coated with zirconium phosphonate for enrichment of phosphopeptides

A new approach utilizing open tubular capillary columns coated with zirconium phosphonate (ZrP-OTCC) for enrichment of phosphopeptides is described. The experimental conditions: interior diameter, length of capillary and flow rate was optimized using tryptic digest of α-casein (a phosphoprotein) as a model sample. The ZrP-OTCC was demonstrated to tolerate urea, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), and NaCl. Further experimental results show that the ZrP-OTCC can trap the phosphopeptides even at the concentration of α-casein as low as 10^?8 M. This column has also been successfully coupled online with nano-liquid chromatography for enrichment and then separation of phosphopeptides from a complex sample, and finally analyzed the phosphopeptides by mass spectrometry (MS).     

Specific phosphopeptide enrichment with immobilized titanium ion affinity chromatography adsorbent for phosphoproteome analysis

The elucidation of protein post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, remains a challenging analytical task for proteomic studies. Since many of the proteins targeted for phosphorylation are low in abundance and phosphorylation is typically substoichiometric, a prerequisite for their identification is the specific enrichment of phosphopeptide prior to mass spectrometric analysis. Here, we presented a new method termed as immobilized titanium ion affinity chromatography (Ti (4+)-IMAC) for enriching phosphopeptides. A phosphate polymer, which was prepared by direct polymerization of monomers containing phosphate groups, was applied to immobilize Ti (4+) through the chelating interaction between phosphate groups on the polymer and Ti (4+). The resulting Ti (4+)-IMAC resin specifically isolates phosphopeptides from a digest mixture of standard phosphoproteins and nonphosphoprotein (BSA) in a ratio as low as 1:500. Ti (4+)-IMAC was further applied for phosphoproteome analysis of mouse liver. We also compared Ti (4+)-IMAC to other enrichment methods including Fe (3+)-IMAC, Zr (4+)-IMAC, TiO 2 and ZrO 2, and demonstrate superior selectivity and efficiency of Ti (4+)-IMAC for the isolation and enrichment of phosphopeptides. The high specificity and efficiency of phosphopeptide enrichment by Ti (4+)-IMAC mainly resulted from the flexibility of immobilized titanium ion with spacer arm linked to polymer beads as well as the specific interaction between immobilized titanium ion and phosphate group on phosphopeptides.     

IMAC/TiO(2) enrich for peptide modifications other than phosphorylation: implications for chromatographic choice and database searching in phosphoproteomics

Protein regulation by reversible phosphorylation is fundamental in nature, and large-scale phosphoproteomic analyses are becoming routine in proteomics laboratories. These analyses utilise phosphopeptide separation and enrichment techniques linked to LC-MS/MS. Herein, we report that IMAC and TiO(2) also enrich for non-phosphorylated modified peptides such as acetylated, deamidated and carbamylated peptides. Urea and digestion conditions commonly used in phosphoproteomic workflows are the likely sources of the induced modifications (deamidation and carbamylation) and can easily modify phosphopeptides. Including these variable modifications in database searches increased the total number of identified phosphopeptides by 15%. We also show that strong cation exchange fractionation provides poor resolution of phosphopeptides and actually enriches these alternatively modified peptides. By switching to reverse-phase chromatography, we show a significant improvement in the number of identified phosphopeptides. We recommend that the users of phosphopeptide enrichment strategies avoid using urea as a denaturant and that careful consideration is given to chromatographic conditions and the types of variable modifications used in database searches. Thus, the capacity of IMAC and TiO(2) to enrich phosphopeptides bearing modifications other than phosphorylation is a previously unappreciated property of these chromatographies with practical implications for the field of phosphoproteomics.     

Derivatized nanoparticle coated capillaries for purification and micro-extraction of proteins and peptides

Various methods are used to enrich or purify a protein of interest from other proteins and components in a crude cell lysate or other sample. One of the most powerful methods is affinity purification, also called affinity chromatography, whereby the proteins of interest are purified by virtue of their specific binding properties to an immobilized ligand. Affinity purification is becoming more widely used for exploring post-translation modifications and protein-protein interactions, especially with a view toward developing new general tag systems and strategies of chemical derivatization on peptides for affinity selection. Our work was aimed to immobilize proteins or ligands for affinity purification of antibodies, fusion-tagged proteins and other proteins and peptides. Selected proteins or peptides are efficiently extracted and enriched using chemically derivatized walls of a fused silica capillary column. In this paper, we present an open tubular capillary, where the inner wall of a fused silica capillary was derivatized by covalent binding of modified polystyrene latex particles. The capillaries were derivatized with iminodiacetic acid and loaded with Fe3+ or Ni2+ for the purification and enrichment of phosphopeptides or His-tagged proteins, respectively. The latex coated capillaries have been successfully applied to enrich phosphopeptides from beta-casein tryptic digest and ovalbumin tryptic digest at a micro volume scale with recoveries ranging from 92 to 95%. The capillaries have been eluted under conditions compatible with MALDI-MS without any prior desalting step. In another approach, concanavalin A (Con A) or Protein G were immobilized on the epoxy modified latex on the inner wall of the fused silica capillary for the purification of glycoproteins and immunoglobulin, respectively. The design of the capillary and the protocols used for purification permits the direct detection of eluted proteins and peptides with gel electrophoresis or with mass spectrometry. The elution volumes are passed as discrete segments of few microliters over the inner surface of the open-tube capillary, achieving enrichment factors of more than 20-fold from starting samples.     

Cerium ion-chelated magnetic silica microspheres for enrichment and direct determination of phosphopeptides by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry

In this study, we employed, for the first time, the Ce4+-chelated magnetic silica microspheres to selectively concentrate phosphopeptides from protein digest products. Cerium ions were chelated onto magnetic silica microspheres using the strategy we established before. After enrichment, the phosphopeptide-conjugated magnetic microspheres were separated from the sample solution just by using a magnet. With the optimized enrichment conditions, the performance of the Ce4+-chelated magnetic microspheres was compared with the Fe3+-chelated microspheres using tryptic digested peptides originating from ovalbumin, a five protein mixture containing phosphoproteins and nonphosphoproteins, as well as a mixture of beta-casein and BSA with a molar ratio of 1:50. Compared to Fe3+, Ce4+-chelated magnetic microspheres exhibited more selective isolation ability for concentrating phosphopeptides from complex mixtures. Even when the amount of the tryptic digest product of BSA is 50 times higher than that of beta-casein in the sample solution, the trace phosphopeptides derived from beta-casein can still be concentrated effectively by the Ce4+-chelated magnetic microspheres in only 30 s. Furthermore, we initially utilized the Ce4+-chelated magnetic microspheres to directly enrich phosphopeptides from human serum without extra purification steps or tedious treatment, which opens up a possibility for their further application in phosphoproteomics.     

Identification of phosphopeptides with unknown cleavage specificity by a de novo sequencing assisted database search strategy

In theory, proteases with broad cleavage specificity could be applied to digest protein samples to improve the phosphoproteomic analysis coverage. However, in practice this approach is seldom employed. This is because the identification of phosphopeptides without enzyme specificity by conventional database search strategy is extremely difficult due to the huge search space. In this study, we investigated the performance of a de novo sequencing assisted database search strategy for the identification of such phosphopeptides. Firstly, we compared the performance of conventional database search strategy and the de novo sequencing assisted database search strategy for the identification of peptides and phosphopeptides without stetting enzyme specificity. It was found that the identification sensitivity dropped significantly for the conventional one while it was only slightly decreased for the new approach. Then, this new search strategy was applied to identify phosphopeptides generated by Proteinase K digestion, which resulted in the identification of 717 phosphopeptides. Finally, this strategy was utilized for the identification of serum endogenous phosphopeptides, which were generated in vivo by different kinds of proteases and kinases, and the identification of 68 unique serum endogenous phosphopepitdes was successfully achieved.     

Enrichment of phosphopeptides by Fe3+-immobilized mesoporous nanoparticles of MCM-41 for MALDI and nano-LC-MS/MS analysis

Fe3+-immobilized mesoporous molecular sieves MCM-41 with particle size of ca. 600 nm and pore size of ca. 3 nm is synthesized and applied to selectively trap and separate phosphopeptides from tryptic digest of proteins. For the capture of phosphopeptides, typically 10 microL of tryptic digest solution was first diluted to 1 mL by solution of ACN/0.1% TFA (50:50, v/v) and incubated with 10 microL of 0.1% acetic acid dispersed Fe3+-immobilized MCM-41 for 1 h under vibration. Fe3+-immobilized MCM-41 with trapped phosphopeptides was separated by centrifugation. The deposition was first washed with a volume of 300 microL of solution containing 100 mM NaCl in ACN/0.1% TFA (50:50, v/v) and followed by a volume of 300 microL of solution of 0.1% acetic acid to remove nonspecifically bound peptides. The nanoparticles with trapped phosphopeptides are mixed with 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,5-DHB) and deposited onto the target for analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). It was found that phosphopeptides from tryptic digest of alpha-casein and beta-casein are effectively and specifically trapped on Fe3+-immobilized MCM-41 with few peptides nonspecifically adsorbed. After the extraction by Fe3+-immobilized MCM-41, the suppression to the detection of phosphopeptides caused by abundant nonphosphopeptides from tryptic digest is effectively eliminated, and the detection of phosphopeptides by MALDI is greatly enhanced with the value of signal-to-noise (S/N) increased by more than an order of magnitude. It is demonstrated that the mechanism of the adsorption of phosphopeptides on Fe3+-immobilized MCM-41 is based on the interaction between the Fe3+ and the phosphate group. Finally, Fe3+-immobilized MCM-41 is applied to extract phosphopeptides from tryptic digest of the lysate of mouse liver for phosphoproteome analysis by nano-LC-MS/MS.     

Rapid enrichment of phosphopeptides from tryptic digests of proteins using iron oxide nanocomposites of magnetic particles coated with zirconia as the concentrating probes

Iron oxide nanocomposites of magnetic particles coated with zirconia were used as affinity probes to selectively concentrate phosphopeptides from tryptic digests of alpha- and beta-caseins, milk, and egg white to exemplify the enrichment of phosphopeptides from complex samples. Phosphopeptides, in quantities sufficient for characterization by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS), were enriched by the affinity probes within only 30 s. The affinity probe-target species conjugates were separated from the sample solution simply by applying an external magnetic field. The detection limit for tryptic digest of beta-casein using this approach is approximately 45 fmol. Furthermore, we combined this enrichment method with a rapid enzymatic digestion method, that is, microwave-assisted enzymatic digestion using magnetic particles as the microwave absorbers, to speed up the tryptic digest reactions. Thus, we alternatively enriched phosphoproteins on the zirconia-coated particles followed by mixing with trypsin and heated the mixture in a microwave oven for 1 min. The particles remaining in the mixture were used as affinity probes to selectively enrich phosphopeptides from the tryptic digestion product by pipetting, followed by characterization using MALDI MS. Using the bifunctional zirconia-coated magnetic particles as both the affinity probes and the microwave absorbers could greatly reduce the time for the purification and characterization of phosphopeptides from complex samples.