Quantification and Identification of Post-Translational Modifications Using Modern Proteomics

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) occur dynamically, allowing cells to quickly respond to changes in the environment. Lysine residues can be targeted by several modifications including acylations (acetylation, succinylation, malonylation, glutarylation, and others), methylation, ubiquitination, and other modifications. One of the most efficient methods for the identification of post-translational modifications is utilizing immunoaffinity enrichment followed by high-resolution mass spectrometry. This workflow can be coupled with comprehensive data-independent acquisition (DIA) mass spectrometry to be a high-throughput, label-free PTM quantification approach. Below we describe a detailed protocol to process tissue by homogenization and proteolytically digest proteins, followed by immunoaffinity enrichment of lysine-acetylated peptides to identify and quantify relative changes of acetylation comparing different conditions.

Quantitative Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics: An Overview

In recent decades, mass spectrometry has moved more than ever before into the front line of protein-centered research. After being established at the qualitative level, the more challenging question of quantification of proteins and peptides using mass spectrometry has become a focus for further development. In this chapter, we discuss and review actual strategies and problems of the methods for the quantitative analysis of peptides, proteins, and finally proteomes by mass spectrometry. The common themes, the differences, and the potential pitfalls of the main approaches are presented in order to provide a survey of the emerging field of quantitative, mass spectrometry-based proteomics.

2nSILAC for Quantitative of Prototrophic Baker’s Yeast

Stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) combined with high-resolution mass spectrometry is a quantitative strategy for the comparative analysis of (sub)proteomes. It is based on the metabolicincorporation of stable isotope-coded amino acids during growth of cells or organisms. Here, complete labeling of proteins with the amino acid(s) selected for incorporation needs to be guaranteed to enable accurate quantification on a proteomic scale. Wild-type strains of baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), which is a widely accepted and well-studied eukaryotic model organism, are generally able to synthesize all amino acids on their own (i.e., prototrophic). To render them amenable to SILAC, auxotrophies are introduced by genetic manipulations. We addressed this limitation by developing a generic strategy for complete “native” labeling of prototrophic S. cerevisiae with isotope-coded arginine and lysine, referred to as “2nSILAC”. It allows for directly using and screening several genome-wide yeast mutant collections that are easily accessible to the scientific community for functional proteomic studies but are based on prototrophic variants of S. cerevisiae.