Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step towar... more Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step toward modeling the kinetics in complicated cellular response networks. A gel-free method, able to quantify changes in the formation of new proteins on a 15 min timescale, compatible with mass spectrometry is described. The methionine analogue, azidohomoalanine (azhal), is used to label newly formed proteins during a short pulse-labeling period following an environmental switch in Escherichia coli. Following digestion a selective reaction against azhal-containing peptides is applied to enrich these peptides by diagonal chromatography. This technique enables quantitation of hundreds of newly synthesized proteins and provides insight into immediate changes in newly synthesized proteins on a proteomic scale after an environmental perturbation.
A versatile software tool, VIRTUALMSLAB, is presented that can perform advanced complex virtual p... more A versatile software tool, VIRTUALMSLAB, is presented that can perform advanced complex virtual proteomic experiments with mass spectrometric analyses to assist in the characterization of proteins. The virtual experimental results allow rapid, flexible and convenient exploration of sample preparation strategies and are used to generate MS reference databases that can be matched with the real MS data obtained from the equivalent real experiments. Matches between virtual and acquired data reveal the identity and nature of reaction products that may lead to characterization of post-translational modification patterns, disulfide bond structures, and cross-linking in proteins or protein complexes. The most important unique feature of this program is the ability to perform multistage experiments in any user-defined order, thus allowing the researcher to vary experimental approaches that can be conducted in the laboratory. Several features of VIRTUALMSLAB are demonstrated by mapping both disulfide bonds and artificially introduced protein cross-links. It is shown that chemical cleavage at aspartate residues in the protease resistant RNase A, followed by tryptic digestion can be optimized so that the rigid protein breaks up into MALDI-MS detectable fragments, leaving the disulfide bonds intact. We also show the mapping of a number of chemically introduced cross-links in the NK1 domain of hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor. The VIRTUALMSLAB program was used to explore the limitation and potential of mass spectrometry for cross-link studies of more complex biological assemblies, showing the value of high performance instruments such as a Fourier transform mass spectrometer. The program is freely available upon request.
Citric acid is widely used to buffer pharmaceutical formulations including protein pharmaceutical... more Citric acid is widely used to buffer pharmaceutical formulations including protein pharmaceuticals. In accelerated stability studies of the small cyclic peptide oxytocin, we have noted that additional degradation products form when oxytocin is formulated in citrate that do not form in other common buffers such as acetate and phosphate. Using high-pressure liquid chromatography combined with high-resolution and tandem mass spectrometry, we identified these degradation products as amide- and imide-linked adducts of oxytocin and citrate. The site of reaction was shown to be the N-terminal amine of cysteine. The adducts have been found to form for oxytocin formulated in citrate buffer over the pH range of 3-6; the extent of formation is greatest at a pH of 4-4.5. We have additionally identified these same adducts in samples of oxytocin formulated in citrate buffer that had been stored in the dark for 3 months at room temperature. Altogether, these results demonstrate that reaction between citrate and oxytocin leads to the formation of covalent amide- and imide-linked adducts.
Cross-links between amino acid residues in close proximity can provide distance constraints for t... more Cross-links between amino acid residues in close proximity can provide distance constraints for the validation of models of the 3D structure proteins. The mapping of cross-links by the identification of linked peptides in proteolytic digests is facilitated by cleavable cross-linkers that enable isolation of the cleavage products while preserving information about the linkage. We present an amine-specific cross-linker, bis(succinimidyl)-3-azidomethyl glutarate (BAMG), that fulfils these requirements. Two parallel reaction pathways are induced by tris(carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) in cross-linked peptides from BAMG-treated cytochrome c. One pathway leads to cleavage of the cross-linked species, while in the other the azido group of BAMG is reduced to an amino group without cleavage. Cross-linked peptides and peptides modified by partially hydrolysed BAMG yield distinct sets of TCEP-induced reaction products. These can be isolated by reversed-phase diagonal chromatography and identified by mass spectrometry to reveal the identity of the parent compounds. The ease with which cross-link-derived reaction products can be isolated and identified indicates that the mapping of cross-links in complex biological assemblies and mixtures of protein complexes might become feasible in the near future.
Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step towar... more Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step toward modeling the kinetics in complicated cellular response networks. A gel-free method, able to quantify changes in the formation of new proteins on a 15 min timescale, compatible with mass spectrometry is described. The methionine analogue, azidohomoalanine (azhal), is used to label newly formed proteins during a short pulse-labeling period following an environmental switch in Escherichia coli. Following digestion a selective reaction against azhal-containing peptides is applied to enrich these peptides by diagonal chromatography. This technique enables quantitation of hundreds of newly synthesized proteins and provides insight into immediate changes in newly synthesized proteins on a proteomic scale after an environmental perturbation.
Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step towar... more Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step toward modeling the kinetics in complicated cellular response networks. A gel-free method, able to quantify changes in the formation of new proteins on a 15 min timescale, compatible with mass spectrometry is described. The methionine analogue, azidohomoalanine (azhal), is used to label newly formed proteins during a short pulse-labeling period following an environmental switch in Escherichia coli. Following digestion a selective reaction against azhal-containing peptides is applied to enrich these peptides by diagonal chromatography. This technique enables quantitation of hundreds of newly synthesized proteins and provides insight into immediate changes in newly synthesized proteins on a proteomic scale after an environmental perturbation.
A versatile software tool, VIRTUALMSLAB, is presented that can perform advanced complex virtual p... more A versatile software tool, VIRTUALMSLAB, is presented that can perform advanced complex virtual proteomic experiments with mass spectrometric analyses to assist in the characterization of proteins. The virtual experimental results allow rapid, flexible and convenient exploration of sample preparation strategies and are used to generate MS reference databases that can be matched with the real MS data obtained from the equivalent real experiments. Matches between virtual and acquired data reveal the identity and nature of reaction products that may lead to characterization of post-translational modification patterns, disulfide bond structures, and cross-linking in proteins or protein complexes. The most important unique feature of this program is the ability to perform multistage experiments in any user-defined order, thus allowing the researcher to vary experimental approaches that can be conducted in the laboratory. Several features of VIRTUALMSLAB are demonstrated by mapping both disulfide bonds and artificially introduced protein cross-links. It is shown that chemical cleavage at aspartate residues in the protease resistant RNase A, followed by tryptic digestion can be optimized so that the rigid protein breaks up into MALDI-MS detectable fragments, leaving the disulfide bonds intact. We also show the mapping of a number of chemically introduced cross-links in the NK1 domain of hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor. The VIRTUALMSLAB program was used to explore the limitation and potential of mass spectrometry for cross-link studies of more complex biological assemblies, showing the value of high performance instruments such as a Fourier transform mass spectrometer. The program is freely available upon request.
Citric acid is widely used to buffer pharmaceutical formulations including protein pharmaceutical... more Citric acid is widely used to buffer pharmaceutical formulations including protein pharmaceuticals. In accelerated stability studies of the small cyclic peptide oxytocin, we have noted that additional degradation products form when oxytocin is formulated in citrate that do not form in other common buffers such as acetate and phosphate. Using high-pressure liquid chromatography combined with high-resolution and tandem mass spectrometry, we identified these degradation products as amide- and imide-linked adducts of oxytocin and citrate. The site of reaction was shown to be the N-terminal amine of cysteine. The adducts have been found to form for oxytocin formulated in citrate buffer over the pH range of 3-6; the extent of formation is greatest at a pH of 4-4.5. We have additionally identified these same adducts in samples of oxytocin formulated in citrate buffer that had been stored in the dark for 3 months at room temperature. Altogether, these results demonstrate that reaction between citrate and oxytocin leads to the formation of covalent amide- and imide-linked adducts.
Cross-links between amino acid residues in close proximity can provide distance constraints for t... more Cross-links between amino acid residues in close proximity can provide distance constraints for the validation of models of the 3D structure proteins. The mapping of cross-links by the identification of linked peptides in proteolytic digests is facilitated by cleavable cross-linkers that enable isolation of the cleavage products while preserving information about the linkage. We present an amine-specific cross-linker, bis(succinimidyl)-3-azidomethyl glutarate (BAMG), that fulfils these requirements. Two parallel reaction pathways are induced by tris(carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) in cross-linked peptides from BAMG-treated cytochrome c. One pathway leads to cleavage of the cross-linked species, while in the other the azido group of BAMG is reduced to an amino group without cleavage. Cross-linked peptides and peptides modified by partially hydrolysed BAMG yield distinct sets of TCEP-induced reaction products. These can be isolated by reversed-phase diagonal chromatography and identified by mass spectrometry to reveal the identity of the parent compounds. The ease with which cross-link-derived reaction products can be isolated and identified indicates that the mapping of cross-links in complex biological assemblies and mixtures of protein complexes might become feasible in the near future.
Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step towar... more Measuring protein synthesis and degradation rates on a proteomic scale is an important step toward modeling the kinetics in complicated cellular response networks. A gel-free method, able to quantify changes in the formation of new proteins on a 15 min timescale, compatible with mass spectrometry is described. The methionine analogue, azidohomoalanine (azhal), is used to label newly formed proteins during a short pulse-labeling period following an environmental switch in Escherichia coli. Following digestion a selective reaction against azhal-containing peptides is applied to enrich these peptides by diagonal chromatography. This technique enables quantitation of hundreds of newly synthesized proteins and provides insight into immediate changes in newly synthesized proteins on a proteomic scale after an environmental perturbation.
Uploads
Papers by Piotr Kasper