Improving identification of low abundance and hydrophobic proteins using fluoroalcohol mediated supramolecular biphasic systems with quaternary ammonium salts.

In this study, a newly discovered Supramolecular Biphasic System (S-BPS) was used in bottom-up proteomics of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain of yeast. We took advantage of S-BPS in bottom-up proteomics of this strain of yeast as the protein sample, while the results were compared to routinely used solubilizing reagents, such as urea, and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). With the S-BPS, we identified 3043 proteins as compared to 2653 proteins that were identified in the control system. Interestingly, of the additional 390 proteins characterized by the S-BPS, 300 proteins were low abundance (less than 4000 molecules/cell). Remarkably, the identification of proteins at very low abundance (less than 2000 molecule/cell) was improved by 106%. This suggests that the S-BPS is particularly advantageous for detecting low abundance proteins. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis was conducted to find fractionation pattern of proteins in our two-phase system, and in nearly every gene ontology category, the S-BPS provided greater coverage than the control experiment, i.e., coverage for integral membrane proteins and mitochondrial ribosome proteins are improved by 18% and 58%, respectively. The improvements in proteins coverage for low abundance and membrane proteins can be attributed to the strong solubilizing power of the amphiphile-rich phase of this S-BPS and its capability for concomitant extraction, fractionation, and enrichment of the complex proteomics samples. Each phase has selectivity towards specific yeast protein groups, this selectivity is generally based on pI and hydrophobicity of proteins. Therefore, more hydrophobic proteins and acidic proteins exhibit greater affinities for the amphiphile-rich phase due to the hydrophobic effect and electrostatic interactions.

Rice proteins and cod proteins forming shared microstructures with enhanced functional and nutritional properties.

Low water solubility strictly limits the potential applications of plant or animal proteins such as rice proteins (RPs) and cod proteins (CPs). In this study, nanoscale hydrophilic colloidal co-assemblies (80 ~ 150 nm) with excellent water solubility were prepared by hydrating RPs and CPs at pH 12 combined with neutralization. The solubility of RPs was boosted to over 90% (w/v), while most of the subunits in CPs became fully soluble. Structural analysis revealed that RPs and CPs non-covalently reacted, which triggered sheet-helix transitions and formed a compact core of RPs coated by a layer of CPs. Both proteins exposed significant hydrophilic motifs and buried hydrophobic moieties, contributing to the high water-dispersibility of their co-assemblies. Moreover, the co-assembled proteins acquired leveraged amino acid compositions between RPs and CPs. This study will enrich the processing technology of protein components, customizing their structural and nutritional characteristics.

Coacervation of Lipid Bilayer in Natural Cell Membranes for Extraction, Fractionation, and Enrichment of Proteins in Proteomics Studies.

This is the first report where hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) was used to induce the coacervation of lipid components in natural cell membranes that would concomitantly result in solubilization, extraction, and enrichment of hydrophobic proteins (e.g., integral membrane proteins, IMP) into the coacervate phase, and extraction of hydrophilic proteins in a separate aqueous phase. The incorporation of this innovative approach in the proteomics workflow would allow the fractionation of proteins in separate aqueous and coacervate phases and would also eliminate the need for using surfactants. Subsequently, proteins can be identified by the bottom-up proteomics approach where samples were digested in solution after phase separation. Yeast cell wall proteins, anchored membrane proteins, and proteins related to some regulatory activities were mostly found in the aqueous-rich phase. On the other hand, most integral membrane proteins, proteins involved in metabolic processes, and proteins responsible for ions or drug binding were identified in the coacervate phase. The detergent-free, facile, and rapid process of natural lipid coacervation increased the number of identified proteins by 8% (vs no-phase separation experiment). The identification of all IMPs and organelle IMPs was improved by 13% and 29%, respectively. In addition, 25% more low-abundance proteins (less than 20 ppm) were identified.

The roles of cytosolic quality control proteins, SGTA and the BAG6 complex, in disease.

SGTA is a co-chaperone that, in collaboration with the complex of BAG6/UBL4A/TRC35, facilitates the biogenesis and quality control of hydrophobic proteins, protecting them from the aqueous cytosolic environment. This work includes targeting tail-anchored proteins to their resident membranes, sorting of membrane and secretory proteins that mislocalize to the cytoplasm and endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation of misfolded proteins. Since these functions are all vital for the cell's continued proteostasis, their disruption poses a threat to the cell, with a particular risk of protein aggregation, a phenomenon that underpins many diseases. Although the specific disease implications of machinery involved in quality control of hydrophobic substrates are poorly understood, here we summarize much of the available information on this topic.

Biochemical Methods to Analyze Wnt Protein Secretion.

Wnt proteins act as potent morphogens in various aspects of embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis. However, in addition to its physiological importance, aberrant Wnt signaling has been linked to the onset and progression of different types of cancer. On the cellular level, the secretion of Wnt proteins involves trafficking of lipid-modified Wnts from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to Golgi and further compartments via the Wnt cargo receptor evenness interrupted. Others and we have recently shown that Wnt proteins are secreted on extracellular vesicles (EVs) such as microvesicles and exosomes. Although more details about specific regulation of Wnt secretion steps are emerging, it remains largely unknown how Wnt proteins are channeled into different release pathways such as lipoprotein particles, EVs and cytonemes. Here, we describe protocols to purify and quantify Wnts from the supernatant of cells by either assessing total Wnt proteins in the supernatant or monitoring Wnt proteins on EVs. Purified Wnts from the supernatant as well as total cellular protein content can be investigated by immunoblotting. Additionally, the relative activity of canonical Wnts in the supernatant can be assessed by a dual-luciferase Wnt reporter assay. Quantifying the amount of secreted Wnt proteins and their activity in the supernatant of cells allows the investigation of intracellular trafficking events that regulate Wnt secretion and the role of extracellular modulators of Wnt spreading.

Enhanced SDC-assisted digestion coupled with lipid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for shotgun analysis of membrane proteome.

Despite the biological importance of membrane proteins, their analysis has lagged behind that of soluble proteins and still presents a great challenge mainly because of their highly hydrophobic nature and low abundance. Sodium deoxycholate (SDC)-assisted digestion strategy has been introduced in our previous papers, which cleverly circumvents many of the challenges in shotgun membrane proteomics. However, it is associated with significant sample loss due to the slightly weaker extraction/solubilization ability of 1% SDC. In this study, an enhanced SDC-assisted digestion method (ESDC method) was developed that incorporates the almost strongest ability of SDC with a high concentration (5%) to lyse membrane and extract/solubilize hydrophobic membrane proteins, and then dilution to 1% for more efficient digestion. The comparative study using rat liver membrane-enriched sample showed that, compared with previous SDC-assisted method and the "universal" filter-aided sample preparation (FASP) method, the ESDC method not only increased the identified number of total proteins, membrane proteins, hydrophobic proteins, integral membrane proteins (IMPs) and IMPs with more than 5 transmembrane domains (TMDs) by an average of 10.8%, 13.2%, 17.8%, 17.9% and 52.9%, respectively, but also enhanced the identified number of total peptides and hydrophobic peptides by averagely 12.5% and 14.2%. These results demonstrated that the ESDC method provides a substantial improvement in the recovery and identification of membrane proteins, especially those with high hydrophobicity and multiple TMDs, and thereby displaying more potential for shotgun membrane proteomics.

Use and application of hydrophobic interaction chromatography for protein purification.

The objective of this section is to provide the reader with guidelines and background on the use and experimental application of Hydrophobic Interaction chromatography (HIC) for the purification of proteins. The section will give step by step instructions on how to use HIC in the laboratory to purify proteins. General guidelines and relevant background information is also provided.

Ancestral mutations as a tool for solubilizing proteins: The case of a hydrophobic phosphate-binding protein.

Stable and soluble proteins are ideal candidates for functional and structural studies. Unfortunately, some proteins or enzymes can be difficult to isolate, being sometimes poorly expressed in heterologous systems, insoluble and/or unstable. Numerous methods have been developed to address these issues, from the screening of various expression systems to the modification of the target protein itself. Here we use a hydrophobic, aggregation-prone, phosphate-binding protein (HPBP) as a case study. We describe a simple and fast method that selectively uses ancestral mutations to generate a soluble, stable and functional variant of the target protein, here named sHPBP. This variant is highly expressed in Escherichia coli, is easily purified and its structure was solved at much higher resolution than its wild-type progenitor (1.3 versus 1.9 Å, respectively).