Use of DNA ladders for reproducible protein fractionation by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) for quantitative proteomics

In proteomics, one-dimensional (1D) sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) is widely used for protein fractionation prior to mass spectrometric analysis to enhance the dynamic range of analysis and to improve the identification of low-abundance proteins. Such protein prefractionation works well for quantitation strategies if the proteins are labeled prior to separation. However, because of the poor reproducibility of cutting gel slices, especially when small amounts of samples are analyzed, its application in label-free and peptide-labeling quantitative proteomics methods has been greatly limited. To overcome this limitation, we developed a new strategy in which a DNA ladder is mixed with the protein sample before PAGE separation. After PAGE separation, the DNA ladder is stained to allow for easy, precise, and reproducible gel cutting. To this end, a novel visible DNA-staining method was developed. This staining method is fast, sensitive, and compatible with mass spectrometry. To evaluate the reproducibility of DNA-ladder-assisted gel cutting for quantitative protein fractionation, we used stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC). Our results show that the quantitative error associated with fractionation can be minimized using the DNA-assisted fractionation and multiple replicates of gel cutting. In conclusion, 1D PAGE fractionation in combination with DNA ladders can be used for label-free comparative proteomics without compromising quantitation.     

蛋白质组学研究中的对角线电泳

经典的蛋白质组学研究方法包括IEF/SDS-PAGE双向电泳和质谱技术的联用,但由于IEF的一些不足,限制了其应用范围。对角线电泳是蛋白质组学研究中的一项特殊分离技术,由于其原理与IEF/SDS-PAGE不同,正逐渐成为蛋白质组学中电泳分离技术的重要补充,特别是在膜蛋白和蛋白质相互关系的研究中将起到重要作用。本文综述了对角线双向电泳技术的特点、发展和在蛋白质组学研究中的最新进展,比较了双向电泳和对角线电泳的优缺点,展望了对角线电泳在蛋白质组学研究中的应用前景。     

Improvements in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis by utilizing a low cost "in-house" neutral pH sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis system

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) is widely used for initial protein separation in proteomics. Commercial products using neutral pH sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis ((SDS-PAGE)/(Bis (2-hydroxyethyl) imino-tris (hydroxymethyl) methane-HCl, or Bis-Tris)) have greatly improved this technique, but cost and limited sizes restrict their applications. An "in-house" system is presented, resulting in better resolution, separation, and new spot visualization and improved resolution when compared to Tris-HCl gels. Their utility is demonstrated using albumin-depleted serum samples, rabbit heart left ventricle, and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1).     

High throughput two-dimensional blue-native electrophoresis: a tool for functional proteomics of mitochondria and signaling complexes

The recent upsurge in proteomics research has been facilitated largely by streamlining of two-dimensional (2-D) gel technology and the parallel development of facile mass spectrometry for analysis of peptides and proteins. However, application of these technologies to the mitochondrial proteome has been limited due to the considerable complement of hydrophobic membrane proteins in mitochondria, which precipitate during first dimension isoelectric focusing of standard 2-D gels. In addition, functional information regarding protein:protein interactions is lost during 2-D gel separation due to denaturing conditions in both gel dimensions. To resolve these issues, 2-D blue-native gel electrophoresis was applied to the mitochondrial proteome. In this technique, membrane protein complexes such as those of the respiratory chain are solubilized and resolved in native form in the first dimension. A second dimension sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gel then denatures the complexes and resolves them into their component subunits. Refinements to this technique have yielded the levels of throughput and reproducibility required for proteomics. By coupling to tryptic peptide fingerprinting using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry, a partial mitochondrial proteome map has been assembled. Applications of this functional mitochondrial proteomics method are discussed.     

Highlights on the capacities of "Gel-based" proteomics

Gel-based proteomic is the most popular and versatile method of global protein separation and quantification. This is a mature approach to screen the protein expression at the large scale, and a cheaper approach as compared with gel-free proteomics. Based on two independent biochemical characteristics of proteins, two-dimensional electrophoresis combines isoelectric focusing, which separates proteins according to their isoelectric point, and SDS-PAGE, which separates them further according to their molecular mass. The next typical steps of the flow of gel-based proteomics are spots visualization and evaluation, expression analysis and finally protein identification by mass spectrometry. For the study of differentially expressed proteins, two-dimensional electrophoresis allows simultaneously to detect, quantify and compare up to thousand protein spots isoforms, including post-translational modifications, in the same gel and in a wide range of biological systems. In this review article, the limits, benefits, and perspectives of gel-based proteomic approaches are discussed using concrete examples.     

Comparative proteomics and difference gel electrophoresis

The goal of comparative proteomics is to analyze proteome changes in response to development, disease, or environment. This is a two-step process in which proteins within cellular extracts are first fractionated to reduce sample complexity, and then the proteins are identified by mass spectrometry. Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) is the long-time standard for protein separation, but it has suffered from poor reproducibility and limited sensitivity. Difference gel electrophoresis (DIGE), in which two protein samples are separately labeled with different fluorescent dyes and then co-electrophoresed on the same 2DE gel, was developed to overcome the reproducibility and sensitivity limitations. In this essay, I discuss the principles of comparative proteomics and the development of DIGE.     

What place for polyacrylamide in proteomics?

Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) continues to deliver high quality protein resolution and dynamic range for the proteomics researcher. To remain as the preferred method for protein separation and characterization, several key steps need to be implemented to ensure quality sample preparation and speed of analysis. Here, we describe the progress made towards establishing 2D-PAGE as the optimal separation tool for proteomics research.     

A blue dive: from ‘blue fingers’ to ‘blue silver’. A comparative overview of staining methods for in-gel proteomics

Gel-based proteomics are the most useful method for protein separation, even when compared with gel-free proteomics. Proteomic analysis by 2D gel electrophoresis (2-DE) with immobilized pH gradients is in turn the best approach to large-scale protein-expression screening. Spots visualization is pivotal for protein identification by mass spectrometry. Commonly used staining methods with excellent mass spectrometry compatibility are coomassie brilliant blue (CBB) or fluorescent dyes. In this study, an implementation of ‘blue silver’ colloidal CBB staining, characterized by high sensitivity and immediate low background, is discussed. The sensitivity of classical, colloidal and ‘blue silver’ CBB staining methods was compared on monodimensional and 2-DE gels. The implementation of the ‘blue silver’ method performs better, provided the physical state of the micelles is respected. An example of a 2-DE of human urine treated with combinatorial peptide ligand libraries demonstrates that implemented ‘blue silver’ can evidence the complexity of the sample.     

Liquid chromatography MALDI MS/MS for membrane proteome analysis

Membrane proteins play critical roles in many biological functions and are often the molecular targets for drug discovery. However, their analysis presents a special challenge largely due to their highly hydrophobic nature. We present a surfactant-aided shotgun proteomics approach for membrane proteome analysis. In this approach, membrane proteins were solubilized and digested in the presence of SDS followed by newly developed auto-offline liquid chromatography/matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (LC/MALDI) tandem MS analysis. Because of high tolerance of MALDI to SDS, one-dimensional (1D) LC separation can be combined with MALDI for direct analysis of protein digests containing SDS, without the need for extensive sample cleanup. In addition, the heated droplet interface used in LC/MALDI can work with high flow LC separations, allowing a relatively large amount of protein digest to be used for 1D LC/MALDI which facilitates the detection of low abundance proteins. The proteome identification results obtained by LC/MALDI are compared to the gel electrophoresis/MS method as well as the shotgun proteomics method using 2D LC/electrospray ionization MS. It is demonstrated that, while LC/MALDI provides more extensive proteome coverage compared to the other two methods, these three methods are complementary to each other and a combination of these methods should provide a more comprehensive membrane proteome analysis.     

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in bacterial proteomics

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) is a gel-based technique widely used for analyzing the protein composition of biological samples. It is capable of resolving complex mixtures containing more than a thousand protein components into individual protein spots through the coupling of two orthogonal biophysical separation techniques: isoelectric focusing (first dimension) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (second dimension). 2-DE is ideally suited for analyzing the entire expressed protein complement of a bacterial cell: its proteome. Its relative simplicity and good reproducibility have led to 2-DE being widely used for exploring proteomics within a wide range of environmental and medically-relevant bacteria. Here we give a broad overview of the basic principles and historical development of gel-based proteomics, and how this powerful approach can be applied for studying bacterial biology and physiology. We highlight specific 2-DE applications that can be used to analyze when, where and how much proteins are expressed. The links between proteomics, genomics and mass spectrometry are discussed. We explore how proteomics involving tandem mass spectrometry can be used to analyze (post-translational) protein modifications or to identify proteins of unknown origin by de novo peptide sequencing. The use of proteome fractionation techniques and non-gel-based proteomic approaches are also discussed. We highlight how the analysis of proteins secreted by bacterial cells (secretomes or exoproteomes) can be used to study infection processes or the immune response. This review is aimed at non-specialists who wish to gain a concise, comprehensive and contemporary overview of the nature and applications of bacterial proteomics.     

Proteomic study of the Arabidopsis thaliana chloroplastic envelope membrane utilizing alternatives to traditional two-dimensional electrophoresis

With the completion of the sequencing of the Arabidopsis genome and with the significant increase in the amount of other plant genome and expressed sequence tags (ESTs) data, plant proteomics is rapidly becoming a very active field. We have pursued a high-throughput mass spectrometry-based proteomics approach to identify and characterize membrane proteins localized to the Arabidopsis thaliana chloroplastic envelope membrane. In this study, chloroplasts were prepared from plate- or soil-grown Arabidopsis plants using a novel isolation procedure, and "mixed" envelopes were subsequently isolated using sucrose step gradients. We applied two alternative methodologies, off-line multidimensional protein identification technology (Off-line MUDPIT) and one-dimensional (1D) gel electrophoresis followed by proteolytic digestion and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (Gel-C-MS/MS), to identify envelope membrane proteins. This proteomic study enabled us to identify 392 nonredundant proteins.     

Aluminum modifies the viscosity of filamentous actin solutions as measured by optical displacement microviscometry

Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) is a highly resolving technique for arraying proteins by isoelectric point and molecular mass. To date, the resolving ability of 2-DE for protein separation is unsurpassed, thus ensuring its use as the fundamental separation method for proteomics. When immobilized pH gradients (IPGs) are used for isoelectric focusing in the first dimension, excellent reproducibility and high protein load capacity can be achieved. While this has been beneficial for separations of soluble and mildly hydrophobic proteins, separations of membrane proteins and other hydrophobic proteins with IPGs have often been poor. Stimulated by the growing interest in proteomics, recent developments in 2-DE methodology have been aimed at rectifying this situation. Improvements have been made in the area of protein solubilization and sample fractionation, leading to a revamp of traditional approaches for 2-DE of membrane proteins. This review explores these developments.     

Continuous free-flow electrophoresis separation of cytosolic proteins from the human colon carcinoma cell line LIM 1215: a non two-dimensional gel electrophoresis-based proteome analysis strategy

The conventional approach for analyzing the protein complement of a genome involves the combination of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometric based protein identification technologies. While 2-DE is a powerful separation technique, it is severely limited by the insolubility of certain classes of proteins (e.g. hydrophobic membrane proteins), as well as the amount of protein that can be processed. Here, we describe a simple procedure for resolving complex mixtures of proteins that involves a combination of free flow electrophoresis (FFE), a liquid-based isoelectric focussing (IEF) method, and sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Resolved proteins were identified by peptide fragment sequencing using capillary column reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC)/mass spectrometry (MS). An initial demonstration of the method was performed using digitonin/ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid EDTA extracted cytosolic proteins from the human colon carcinoma cell line, LIM 1215. Cytosolic proteins were separated by liquid-based IEF (pH range 3-10) into 96 fractions, and each FFE fraction was further fractionated by SDS-PAGE. Selected protein bands were excised from the SDS-PAGE gel, digested in situ with trypsin, and subsequently identified by on-line RP-HPLC/electrospray-ionization ion trap MS. Our results indicate that FFE is: (i) an extremely powerful liquid-based IEF method for resolving proteins; (ii) not limited by the amount of sample that can be loaded onto the instrument; and (iii) capable of fractionating intact protein complexes (a potentially powerful tool for cell-mapping proteomics). An up-to-date list of cytosolic proteins from the human colorectal carcinoma cell line LIM 1215 can be found in the Joint Protein Structure Laboratory (JPSL) proteome database. This information will provide an invaluable resource for future proteomics-based biological studies of colon cancer. The JPSL proteome database can be accessed through the World Wide Web (WWW) network (http://www.ludwig.edu.au/jpsl/jpslhome.html).     

Tissue proteomics by one-dimensional gel electrophoresis combined with label-free protein quantification

Label-free methods streamline quantitative proteomics of tissues by alleviating the need for metabolic labeling of proteins with stable isotopes. Here we detail and implement solutions to common problems in label-free data processing geared toward tissue proteomics by one-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (geLC MS/MS). Our quantification pipeline showed high levels of performance in terms of duplicate reproducibility, linear dynamic range, and number of proteins identified and quantified. When applied to the liver of an adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) knockout mouse, we demonstrated an 8-fold increase in the number of statistically significant changing proteins compared to alternative approaches, including many more previously unidentified hydrophobic proteins. Better proteome coverage and quantification accuracy revealed molecular details of the perturbed energy metabolism.     

A sensitive gel-based global O-glycomics approach reveals high levels of mannosyl glycans in the high mass region of the mouse brain proteome

Abstract We developed a gel-based global O-glycomics method applicable for highly complex protein mixtures entrapped in discontinuous gradient gel layers. The protocol is based on in-gel proteolysis with pronase followed by (glyco)peptide elution and off-gel reductive β-elimination. The protocol offers robust performance with sensitivity in the low picomolar range, is compatible with gel-based proteomics, and shows superior performance in global applications in comparison with workflows eliminating glycans in-gel or from electroblotted glycoproteins. By applying this method, we analyzed the O-glycome of human myoblasts and of the mouse brain O-glycoproteome. After semipreparative separation of mouse brain proteins by one-dimensional SDS gel electrophoresis, the O-glycans from proteins in different mass ranges were characterized with a focus on O-mannose-based glycans. The relative proportion of the latter, which generally represent a rare modification, increases to comparatively high levels in the mouse brain proteome in dependence of increasing protein masses.     

Immobilization of the first dimension in 2D blue native/SDS-PAGE allows the relative quantification of membrane proteomes

In biological membranes many proteins are organized in complexes. The method of choice for the global analysis of the subunits of these complexes is two-dimensional blue native (2D BN)/SDS-PAGE. In the 1st dimension complexes are separated by BN-PAGE, and in the 2nd dimension their subunits are resolved by SDS-PAGE. In the currently available protocols the 1st dimension BN gel lanes get distorted during their transfer to the 2nd dimension separation gels. This leads to low reproducibility and high variation of 2D BN/SDS-gels, rendering them unsuitable for comparative analysis. We have developed a 2D BN/SDS-PAGE protocol where the 1st dimension BN gel is cast on a GelBond PAG film. Immobilization prevents distortion of BN gel lanes, which lowers variation and greatly improves reproducibility of 2D BN/SDS-gels. 2D BN/SDS-PAGE with an immobilized 1st dimension was used for the comparative analysis of the cytoplasmic membrane proteomes of Escherichia coli cells overexpressing a membrane protein and to create a 2D BN/SDS-PAGE reference map of the E. coli cytoplasmic membrane proteome with 143 identified proteins from 165 different protein spots.     

Postfractionation for enhanced proteomic analyses: routine electrophoretic methods increase the resolution of standard 2D-PAGE

Here we have addressed common issues of resolution in two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2DE) experiments including proteins 'stacked' at pH extremes, unresolved peptides migrating at the front of separation, and areas of the 2D gel obscured by high abundance proteins. Postfractionation, by selective application of well-established electrophoretic separations immediately following standard 2DE, yields markedly improved resolution in these traditional problem areas using no more specialized equipment or techniques than SDS-PAGE itself.     

Gel-based proteomics in disease research: Is it still valuable?

Gel electrophoresis had been the primary method in proteomics. In the early era of proteomics, gel electrophoresis was a dominant technique of sample preparation for mass spectrometry analysis. Particularly, two-dimensional electrophoresis provided high-resolution proteome separation, and was regarded as the standard methodology for the separation of wide-range proteomes. However, gel electrophoresis turned downwards due to the progress of other separations including liquid chromatography and ionization techniques, resulting gel-free proteomics finally becoming dominant players at present. There are numerous advantages in gel-free approach in aspects of current trends of disease research. Interestingly, gel-free approaches are still advanced, it seems that gel electrophoresis will not be disappeared. The unique features of gel electrophoresis can be complementary for gel-free and it is suitable for the new wave of top-down functional proteomics.