Positive enrichment of C-terminal peptides using oxazolone chemistry and biotinylation

Anal Chem. 2015 Oct 6;87(19):9916-22. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02437.

Abstract

Selective capture of protein C-termini is still challenging in view of the lower reactivity of the carboxyl group relative to amino groups and difficulties in site-specifically labeling the carboxyl group on the C-terminus rather than that on the side chains of acidic amino acids. For highly efficient purification of C-terminus peptides, a novel positive enrichment approach based on the oxazolone chemistry has been developed in this study. A bifunctional group reagent containing biotin and arginine was incorporated into the C-terminus of protein. Together with a streptavidin affinity strategy, the C-terminal peptides could be readily purified and analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS). Unlike the negative enrichment approach, C-terminal peptides, other than non-C-terminal peptides, were captured directly from the peptide mixture in this new method. The labeling efficiency (higher than 90%), enrichment selectivity (purifying C-terminal peptides from mixtures of non-C-terminal peptides at a 1:50 molar ratio), and ionization efficiencies in MS were dramatically improved. Moreover, the highly efficient identification of C-terminal peptides was further achieved by defining biotin as the 21st amino acid and optimizing the database search strategy. We have successfully identified 183 C-terminal peptides from Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis using this creative method, which affords a highly selective and efficient purification approach for C-terminomics study.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry
  • Bacterial Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Biotinylation
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
  • Horses
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Oxazolone / chemistry*
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides / isolation & purification*
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Proteins / chemistry*
  • Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
  • Thermoanaerobacter / chemistry

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Peptides
  • Proteins
  • Oxazolone