TMTpro reagents: a set of isobaric labeling mass tags enables simultaneous proteome-wide measurements across 16 samples.

Isobaric labeling empowers proteome-wide expression measurements simultaneously across multiple samples. Here an expanded set of 16 isobaric reagents based on an isobutyl-proline immonium ion reporter structure (TMTpro) is presented. These reagents have similar characteristics to existing tandem mass tag reagents but with increased fragmentation efficiency and signal. In a proteome-scale example dataset, we compared eight common cell lines with and without Torin1 treatment with three replicates, quantifying more than 8,800 proteins (mean of 7.5 peptides per protein) per replicate with an analysis time of only 1.1 h per proteome. Finally, we modified the thermal stability assay to examine proteome-wide melting shifts after treatment with DMSO, 1 or 20 µM staurosporine with five replicates. This assay identified and dose-stratified staurosporine binding to 228 cellular kinases in just one, 18-h experiment. TMTpro reagents allow complex experimental designs-all with essentially no missing values across the 16 samples and no loss in quantitative integrity.

Low-pH Solid-Phase Amino Labeling of Complex Peptide Digests with TMTs Improves Peptide Identification Rates for Multiplexed Global Phosphopeptide Analysis.

We present a novel tandem mass tag solid-phase amino labeling (TMT-SPAL) protocol using reversible immobilization of peptides onto octadecyl-derivatized (C18) solid supports. This method can reduce the number of steps required in complex protocols, saving time and potentially reducing sample loss. In our global phosphopeptide profiling workflow (SysQuant), we can cut 24 h from the protocol while increasing peptide identifications (20%) and reducing side reactions. Solid-phase labeling with TMTs does require some modification to typical labeling conditions, particularly pH. It has been found that complete labeling equivalent to standard basic pH solution-phase labeling for small and large samples can be achieved on C18 resins under slightly acidic buffer conditions. Improved labeling behavior on C18 compared to that with standard basic pH solution-phase labeling is demonstrated. We analyzed our samples for histidine, serine, threonine, and tyrosine labeling to determine the degree of overlabeling and observed higher than expected levels (25% of all peptide spectral matches (PSMs)) of overlabeling at all of these amino acids (predominantly at tyrosine and serine) in our standard solution-phase labeling protocol. Overlabeling at all of these sites is greatly reduced (4-fold, to 7% of all PSMs) by the low-pH conditions used in the TMT-SPAL protocol. Overlabeling seems to represent a so-far overlooked mechanism causing reductions in peptide identification rates with NHS-activated TMT labeling compared to that with label-free methods. Our results also highlight the importance of searching data for overlabeling when labeling methods are used.