Rapid online nonenzymatic protein digestion combining microwave heating acid hydrolysis and electrochemical oxidation.

ABSTRACT: We report an online nonenzymatic method for site-specific digestion of proteins to yield peptides that are well suited for collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry. The method combines online microwave heating acid hydrolysis at aspartic acid and online electrochemical oxidation at tryptophan and tyrosine. The combined microwave/electrochemical digestion is reproducible and produces peptides with an average sequence length of 10 amino acids. This peptide length is similar to the average peptide length of 9 amino acids obtained by digestion of proteins with the enzyme trypsin. As a result, the peptides produced by this novel nonenzymatic digestion method, when analyzed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, produce protonated molecules with mostly +1 and +2 charge stat

SUBMITTER: Basile F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3034652 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature