Cited by 135Advanced Proteomics Techniques and ApplicationsMass Spectrometry Techniques and ApplicationsProtein purification and stability

Top-Down Proteomics of Large Proteins up to 223 kDa Enabled by Serial Size Exclusion Chromatography Strategy

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Cai, Wenxuan, Tucholski, Trisha, Chen, Bifan, Alpert, Andrew J., McIlwain, Sean, Kohmoto, Takushi, Jin, Song, Ge, Ying·2017·Analytical Chemistry

Abstract

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based top-down proteomics is a powerful method for the comprehensive analysis of proteoforms that arise from genetic variations and post-translational modifications (PTMs). However, top-down MS analysis of high molecular weight (MW) proteins remains challenging mainly due to the exponential decay of signal-to-noise ratio with increasing MW. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) is a favored method for size-based separation of biomacromolecules but typically suffers from low resolution. Herein, we developed a serial size exclusion chromatography (sSEC) strategy to enable high-resolution size-based fractionation of intact proteins (10-223 kDa) from complex protein mixtures. The sSEC fractions could be further separated by reverse phase chromatography (RPC) coupled online with high-resolution MS. We have shown that two-dimensional (2D) sSEC-RPC allowed for the identification of 4044 more unique proteoforms and a 15-fold increase in the detection of proteins above 60 kDa, compared to one-dimensional (1D) RPC. Notably, effective sSEC-RPC separation of proteins significantly enhanced the detection of high MW proteins up to 223 kDa and also revealed low abundance proteoforms that are post-translationally modified. This sSEC method is MS-friendly, robust, and reproducible and, thus, can be applied to both high-efficiency protein purification and large-scale proteomics analysis of cell or tissue lysate for enhanced proteome coverage, particularly for low abundance and high MW proteoforms.

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Crossref · 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b00380

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  • Single-dimension RPLC can identify only ~100 intact proteoforms with limited coverage of larger species (>30 kDa).

    “Typically a single-dimension of RPLC can only enable the identification of ~100 intact proteoforms with limited coverage of larger species (>30 kDa) [69].”
  • sSEC achieved high-resolution size-based separation of cardiac sarcomere proteins and, when used for offline fractionation before RPLC-MS, enabled detection of ~4,000 unique proteoforms up to 223 kDa.

    “sSEC was used to achieve high-resolution size-based separation of cardiac sarcomere proteins and, when used as for offline fractionation before RPLC-MS, enabled the detection of ~4,000 unique proteoforms up to 223 kDa [69].”
  • q-TOF mass spectrometers are a common alternative, robust, affordable, and capable of analyzing relatively large protein species.

    “Quadrupole time-of-flight (q-TOF) mass spectrometers are a common alternative instrument platform, as they are robust, affordable, and capable of analyzing relatively large protein species [69,97].”
  • A recently developed 2DLC method coupling serial size-exclusion chromatography with reversed-phase chromatography enabled the detection and identification of larger heart proteins, including cMyBP-C and MHC, but required much larger amounts of tissue than the HCM septal myectomy tissues obtained.

    “Although we have recently developed a 2DLC method coupling serial size-exclusion chromatography with reversed-phase chromatography that enabled the detection and identification of larger heart proteins, including cMyBP-C and MHC (48, 49), it required much larger amount of tissues than the HCM septal myectomy tissues we obtained here.”
  • Size-based protein fractionation is essential to separate the larger proteins from the smaller ones for top-down MS analysis of large proteins.

    “Size-based protein fractionation is essential to separate the larger proteins from the smaller ones for the top-down MS analysis of large proteins (47, 48).”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [20]Alpert AJ Column Handbook for Size Exclusion Chromatography Academic Press San Diego 1999 249 266
  2. [27]Van Kreveld ME Van den Hoed N Journal of Chromatography A 1978 149 71 91

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Authors
Cai, W., Tucholski, T., Chen, B., Alpert, A. J., McIlwain, S., Kohmoto, T., Jin, S., & Ge, Y.
Affiliations
University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
Corresponding author
Ge, Ying
Venue
Analytical Chemistry
Published
2017-05-02
Volume
89
Issue
10
Pages
5467-5475
ISSN
  • 0003-2700 (ISSN-L)
  • 1520-6882
OpenAlex
W2606061971
Cited by
135
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 8 · 2015: 1
FWCI
8.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Analytical Chemistry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR000427)
  • National Cancer Institute (P30 CA014520)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL096971, R01HL109810)
  • Office of the Director (S10OD018475)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM117058)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Advanced Proteomics Techniques and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein purification and stability
Keywords
top-down proteomics, high molecular weight proteins, proteoforms, post-translational modification, reverse-phase chromatography, signal-to-noise ratio, proteome coverage
MeSH terms
Chromatography, Gel, Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid, Humans, Molecular Weight, Myocardium, Proteins, Proteomics, Creatine Kinase, MM Form, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Chromatography, Reverse-Phase

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