Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Positional proteomics: selective recovery and analysis of N-terminal proteolytic peptides

Abstract

Bottom-up proteomics is the analysis of peptides derived from single proteins or protein mixtures, and because each protein generates tens of peptides, there is scope for controlled reduction in complexity. We report here a new strategy for selective isolation of the N-terminal peptides of a protein mixture, yielding positionally defined peptides. The method is tolerant of several fragmentation methods, and the databases that must be searched are substantially less complex.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Protocol for recovery of N-terminal peptides in a proteome.
Figure 2: Isolation of N-terminal peptides from soluble proteins of mouse skeletal muscle.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bogdanov, B. & Smith, R.D. Mass Spectrom. Rev. 24, 168–200 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Standing, K.G. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 13, 595–601 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Steen, H. & Mann, M. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 5, 699–711 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Smolka, M.B., Zhou, H., Purkayastha, S. & Aebersold, R. Anal. Biochem. 297, 25–31 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kasai, K. J. Chromatogr. 597, 3–18 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Sechi, S. & Chait, B.T. Anal. Chem. 72, 3374–3378 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yamaguchi, M. et al. Anal. Chem. 77, 645–651 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Chelius, D. & Shaler, T.A. Bioconjug. Chem. 14, 205–211 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gevaert, K. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 21, 566–569 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Martens, L. et al. Proteomics 5, 3193–3204 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Kuhn, K. et al. J. Proteome Res. 2, 598–609 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Kuhn, K. et al. Proteomics 5, 2364–2368 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Doherty, M.K., Whitehead, C., McCormack, H., Gaskell, S.J. & Beynon, R.J. Proteomics 5, 522–533 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Doherty, M.K. et al. Proteomics 4, 2082–2093 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Hayter, J.R., Robertson, D.H., Gaskell, S.J. & Beynon, R.J. Mol. Cell. Proteomics 2, 85–95 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Supported by grants to R.J.B. & J.L.H. from the Natural Environment Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. We are grateful to M. Doherty for assistance with the mass spectrometry.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert J Beynon.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Analysis of N-terminal peptides from mouse skeletal muscle. (PDF 118 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Analysis of N-terminal enriched fraction from mouse liver soluble proteins. (PDF 126 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Theoretical analysis of N-terminal positional peptides from mouse. (PDF 182 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Identification of proteins in mouse liver from N-terminal peptides. (PDF 163 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 328 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

McDonald, L., Robertson, D., Hurst, J. et al. Positional proteomics: selective recovery and analysis of N-terminal proteolytic peptides. Nat Methods 2, 955–957 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth811

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth811

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing