Trypsin-catalyzed N-terminal labeling of peptides with stable isotope-coded affinity tags for proteome analysis

Anal Chem. 2014 Jan 21;86(2):1170-7. doi: 10.1021/ac403060d. Epub 2014 Jan 3.

Abstract

An enzymatic approach to label peptide N-termini with isotope-coded affinity tags is presented. This method exploits the high activity of trypsin for peptide synthesis in organic solvents. A cosubstrate containing a stable isotope-coded Arg residue and a biotin tag was synthesized. When the cosubstrate was incubated with tryptic peptides and trypsin in ethanol solution, the stable isotope-coded affinity tag was specifically coupled onto the N-termini of peptides via the formation of new peptide bonds. The labeled peptides were specifically enriched by avidin affinity chromatography and then were submitted to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) for quantification. This enrichment step effectively reduced the interference by unlabeled peptides. The excellent performance of this approach was demonstrated by labeling standard peptides as well as a mouse liver digest. In addition to one amino acid residue, a few dipeptide tags were also introduced to the N-termini of peptides successfully by this enzymatic approach. It was found that the identifications for samples labeled with these tags were highly complementary. Coupling a short sequence tag onto peptides could be an effective approach to improve the coverage for proteome analysis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Avidin / chemistry
  • Biotin / chemistry
  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Chromatography, Affinity
  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Female
  • Liver / chemistry
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Peptides / analysis*
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Proteolysis
  • Proteome / analysis*
  • Proteome / chemistry
  • Staining and Labeling
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry
  • Trypsin / chemistry

Substances

  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Peptides
  • Proteome
  • Avidin
  • Biotin
  • Trypsin