Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography/Reversed-Phase Enrichment of Phosphopeptides and Analysis by CID/ETD Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Major difficulties in phosphoprotein analysis relate to the presence of a huge number of nonphosphorylated proteins and to the wide concentration dynamic range among them. In order to overcome the analysis complexity, specific clean-up and highly efficient enrichment procedures are mandatory prior to the ­chromatographic separation and identification by tandem mass spectrometry. In this chapter, a procedure based on immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC)/reversed-phase phosphopeptide purification and analysis by nanoHPLC-ESI-MS/MS with ion trap is described in detail. CID (collision-induced ­dissociation) and ETD (electron-transfer dissociation) fragmentation techniques are used in combination to specifically determine phosphorylation sites inside the peptide sequences, through the analysis of MS/MS spectra.