Identification and relative quantification of native and proteolytically generated protein C-termini from complex proteomes: C-terminome analysis

Methods Mol Biol. 2011:781:59-69. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-276-2_4.

Abstract

Proteome-wide analysis of protein C-termini has long been inaccessible, but is now enabled by a newly developed negative selection strategy we term C-terminomics. In this procedure, amine- and carboxyl groups of full-length proteins are chemically protected. After trypsin digestion, N-terminal and internal tryptic peptides - but not C-terminal peptides - posses newly formed, unprotected C-termini that are removed by coupling to the high-molecular-weight polymer poly-allylamine. Ultrafiltration separates the uncoupled, blocked C-terminal peptides that are subsequently analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. On a proteome-wide scale, this strategy profiles native protein C-termini together with neo C-termini generated by endoproteolytic cleavage or processive C-terminal truncations ("ragging"). In bacterial proteomes, hundreds of protein C-termini were identified. Stable isotope labeling enables -quantitative comparison of protein C-termini and C-terminal processing in different samples. Using formaldehyde-based chemical labeling, this quantitative approach termed "carboxy-terminal amine-based isotope labeling of substrates (C-TAILS)" identified >100 cleavage sites of exogenously applied GluC protease in an Escherichia coli proteome. C-TAILS complements recently developed N-terminomic techniques for endoprotease substrate discovery and is essential for the characterization of carboxyprotease processing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carboxypeptidases / metabolism*
  • Escherichia coli / enzymology
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism
  • Proteolysis*
  • Proteome / analysis*
  • Proteome / chemistry*
  • Proteome / metabolism

Substances

  • Proteome
  • Carboxypeptidases