A Multipathway Phosphopeptide Standard for Rapid Phosphoproteomics Assay Development.

Recent advances in methodology have made phosphopeptide analysis a tractable problem for many proteomics researchers. There are now a wide variety of robust and accessible enrichment strategies to generate phosphoproteomes while free or inexpensive software tools for quantitation and site localization have simplified phosphoproteome analysis workflow tremendously. As a research group under the Association for Biomolecular Resource Facilities umbrella, the Proteomics Standards Research Group has worked to develop a multipathway phosphopeptide standard based on a mixture of heavy-labeled phosphopeptides designed to enable researchers to rapidly develop assays. This mixture contains 131 mass spectrometry vetted phosphopeptides specifically chosen to cover as many known biologically interesting phosphosites as possible from seven different signaling networks: AMPK signaling, death and apoptosis signaling, ErbB signaling, insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling, mTOR signaling, PI3K/AKT signaling, and stress (p38/SAPK/JNK) signaling. Here, we describe a characterization of this mixture spiked into a HeLa tryptic digest stimulated with both epidermal growth factor and insulin-like growth factor-1 to activate the MAPK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. We further demonstrate a comparison of phosphoproteomic profiling of HeLa performed independently in five labs using this phosphopeptide mixture with data-independent acquisition. Despite different experimental and instrumentation processes, we found that labs could produce reproducible, harmonized datasets by reporting measurements as ratios to the standard, while intensity measurements showed lower consistency between labs even after normalization. Our results suggest that widely available, biologically relevant phosphopeptide standards can act as a quantitative "yardstick" across laboratories and sample preparations enabling experimental designs larger than a single laboratory can perform. Raw data files are publicly available in the MassIVE dataset MSV000090564.

Automating UbiFast for High-throughput and Multiplexed Ubiquitin Enrichment.

Robust methods for deep-scale enrichment and site-specific identification of ubiquitylation sites are necessary for characterizing the myriad roles of protein ubiquitylation. To this end we previously developed UbiFast, a sensitive method for highly multiplexed ubiquitylation profiling where K-ϵ-GG peptides are enriched with anti-K-ε-GG antibody and labeled on-antibody with isobaric labeling reagents for sample multiplexing. Here, we present robotic automation of the UbiFast method using a magnetic bead-conjugated K-ε-GG antibody (mK-ε-GG) and a magnetic particle processor. We report the identification of ∼20,000 ubiquitylation sites from a TMT10-plex with 500 µg input per sample processed in ∼2 h. Automation of the UbiFast method greatly increased the number of identified and quantified ubiquitylation sites, improved reproducibility, and significantly reduced processing time. The automated method also significantly reduced variability across process replicates compared with the manual method. The workflow enables processing of up to 96 samples in a single day making it suitable to study ubiquitylation in large sample sets. Here we demonstrate the applicability of the method to profile small amounts of tissue using breast cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tissue samples.

Novel Antibodies for the Simple and Efficient Enrichment of Native O-GlcNAc Modified Peptides.

Antibodies against posttranslational modifications (PTMs) such as lysine acetylation, ubiquitin remnants, or phosphotyrosine have resulted in significant advances in our understanding of the fundamental roles of these PTMs in biology. However, the roles of a number of PTMs remain largely unexplored due to the lack of robust enrichment reagents. The addition of N-acetylglucosamine to serine and threonine residues (O-GlcNAc) by the O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) is a PTM implicated in numerous biological processes and disease states but with limited techniques for its study. Here, we evaluate a new mixture of anti-O-GlcNAc monoclonal antibodies for the immunoprecipitation of native O-GlcNAcylated peptides from cells and tissues. The anti-O-GlcNAc antibodies display good sensitivity and high specificity toward O-GlcNAc-modified peptides and do not recognize O-GalNAc or GlcNAc in extended glycans. Applying this antibody-based enrichment strategy to synaptosomes from mouse brain tissue samples, we identified over 1300 unique O-GlcNAc-modified peptides and over 1000 sites using just a fraction of sample preparation and instrument time required in other landmark investigations of O-GlcNAcylation. Our rapid and robust method greatly simplifies the analysis of O-GlcNAc signaling and will help to elucidate the role of this challenging PTM in health and disease.

Identification of Rpl29 as a major substrate of the lysine methyltransferase Set7/9.

Set7/9 (also known as Set7, Set9, Setd7, and Kmt7) is a lysine methyltransferase that catalyzes the methylation of multiple substrates, including histone H3 and non-histone proteins. Although not essential for normal development and physiology, Set7/9-mediated methylation events play important roles in regulating cellular pathways involved in various human diseases, making Set7/9 a promising therapeutic target. Multiple Set7/9 inhibitors have been developed, which exhibit varying degrees of potency and selectivity in vitro However, validation of these compounds in vivo has been hampered by the lack of a reliable cellular biomarker for Set7/9 activity. Here, we report the identification of Rpl29, a ribosomal protein abundantly expressed in all cell types, as a major substrate of Set7/9. We show that Rpl29 lysine 5 (Rpl29K5) is methylated exclusively by Set7/9 and can be demethylated by Lsd1 (also known as Kdm1a). Rpl29 is not a core component of the ribosome translational machinery and plays a regulatory role in translation efficiency. Our results indicate that Rpl29 methylation has no effect on global protein synthesis but affects Rpl29 subcellular localization. Using an Rpl29 methylation-specific antibody, we demonstrate that Rpl29K5 methylation is present ubiquitously and validate that (R)-PFI-2, a Set7/9 inhibitor, efficiently reduces Rpl29K5 methylation in cell lines. Thus, Rpl29 methylation can serve as a specific cellular biomarker for measuring Set7/9 activity.

Quantitative Profiling of Post-translational Modifications by Immunoaffinity Enrichment and LC-MS/MS in Cancer Serum without Immunodepletion.

A robust method was developed and optimized for enrichment and quantitative analysis of posttranslational modifications (PTMs) in serum/plasma samples by combining immunoaffinity purification and LC-MS/MS without depletion of abundant proteins. The method was used to survey serum samples of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), breast cancer (BC), and nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Peptides were identified from serum samples containing phosphorylation, acetylation, lysine methylation, and arginine methylation. Of the PTMs identified, lysine acetylation (AcK) and arginine mono-methylation (Rme) were more prevalent than other PTMs. Label-free quantitative analysis of AcK and Rme peptides was performed for sera from AML, BC, and NSCLC patients. Several AcK and Rme sites showed distinct abundance distribution patterns across the three cancer types. The identification and quantification of posttranslationally modified peptides in serum samples reported here can be used for patient profiling and biomarker discovery research.

Immunoaffinity enrichment and mass spectrometry analysis of protein methylation.

Protein methylation is a common posttranslational modification that mostly occurs on arginine and lysine residues. Arginine methylation has been reported to regulate RNA processing, gene transcription, DNA damage repair, protein translocation, and signal transduction. Lysine methylation is best known to regulate histone function and is involved in epigenetic regulation of gene transcription. To better study protein methylation, we have developed highly specific antibodies against monomethyl arginine; asymmetric dimethyl arginine; and monomethyl, dimethyl, and trimethyl lysine motifs. These antibodies were used to perform immunoaffinity purification of methyl peptides followed by LC-MS/MS analysis to identify and quantify arginine and lysine methylation sites in several model studies. Overall, we identified over 1000 arginine methylation sites in human cell line and mouse tissues, and ∼160 lysine methylation sites in human cell line HCT116. The number of methylation sites identified in this study exceeds those found in the literature to date. Detailed analysis of arginine-methylated proteins observed in mouse brain compared with those found in mouse embryo shows a tissue-specific distribution of arginine methylation, and extends the types of proteins that are known to be arginine methylated to include many new protein types. Many arginine-methylated proteins that we identified from the brain, including receptors, ion channels, transporters, and vesicle proteins, are involved in synaptic transmission, whereas the most abundant methylated proteins identified from mouse embryo are transcriptional regulators and RNA processing proteins.

Activating alleles of JAK3 in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia.

Tyrosine kinases are aberrantly activated in numerous malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML). To identify tyrosine kinases activated in AML, we developed a screening strategy that rapidly identifies tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins using mass spectrometry. This allowed the identification of an activating mutation (A572V) in the JAK3 pseudokinase domain in the acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) cell line CMK. Subsequent analysis identified two additional JAK3 alleles, V722I and P132T, in AMKL patients. JAK3(A572V), JAK3(V722I), and JAK3(P132T) each transform Ba/F3 cells to factor-independent growth, and JAK3(A572V) confers features of megakaryoblastic leukemia in a murine model. These findings illustrate the biological importance of gain-of-function JAK3 mutations in leukemogenesis and demonstrate the utility of proteomic approaches to identifying clinically relevant mutations.

PTMScan direct: identification and quantification of peptides from critical signaling proteins by immunoaffinity enrichment coupled with LC-MS/MS.

Proteomic studies of post-translational modifications by metal affinity or antibody-based methods often employ data-dependent analysis, providing rich data sets that consist of randomly sampled identified peptides because of the dynamic response of the mass spectrometer. This can complicate the primary goal of programs for drug development, mutational analysis, and kinase profiling studies, which is to monitor how multiple nodes of known, critical signaling pathways are affected by a variety of treatment conditions. Cell Signaling Technology has developed an immunoaffinity-based LC-MS/MS method called PTMScan Direct for multiplexed analysis of these important signaling proteins. PTMScan Direct enables the identification and quantification of hundreds of peptides derived from specific proteins in signaling pathways or specific protein types. Cell lines, tissues, or xenografts can be used as starting material. PTMScan Direct is compatible with both SILAC and label-free quantification. Current PTMScan Direct reagents target key nodes of many signaling pathways (PTMScan Direct: Multipathway), serine/threonine kinases, tyrosine kinases, and the Akt/PI3K pathway. Validation of each reagent includes score filtering of MS/MS assignments, filtering by identification of peptides derived from expected targets, identification of peptides homologous to expected targets, minimum signal intensity of peptide ions, and dependence upon the presence of the reagent itself compared with a negative control. The Multipathway reagent was used to study sensitivity of human cancer cell lines to receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors and showed consistent results with previously published studies. The Ser/Thr kinase reagent was used to compare relative levels of kinase-derived phosphopeptides in mouse liver, brain, and embryo, showing tissue-specific activity of many kinases including Akt and PKC family members. PTMScan Direct will be a powerful quantitative method for elucidation of changes in signaling in a wide array of experimental systems, combining the specificity of traditional biochemical methods with the high number of data points and dynamic range of proteomic methods.

Ubiquitin ligase substrate identification through quantitative proteomics at both the protein and peptide levels.

Protein ubiquitination is a key regulatory process essential to life at a cellular level; significant efforts have been made to identify ubiquitinated proteins through proteomics studies, but the level of success has not reached that of heavily studied post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation. HRD1, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, has been implicated in rheumatoid arthritis, but no disease-relevant substrates have been identified. To identify these substrates, we have taken both peptide and protein level approaches to enrich for ubiquitinated proteins in the presence and absence of HRD1. At the protein level, a two-step strategy was taken using cells expressing His(6)-tagged ubiquitin, enriching proteins first based on their ubiquitination and second based on the His tag with protein identification by LC-MS/MS. Application of this method resulted in identification and quantification of more than 400 ubiquitinated proteins, a fraction of which were found to be sensitive to HRD1 and were therefore deemed candidate substrates. In a second approach, ubiquitinated peptides were enriched after tryptic digestion by peptide immunoprecipitation using an antibody specific for the diglycine-labeled internal lysine residue indicative of protein ubiquitination, with peptides and ubiquitination sites identified by LC-MS/MS. Peptide immunoprecipitation resulted in identification of over 1800 ubiquitinated peptides on over 900 proteins in each study, with several proteins emerging as sensitive to HRD1 levels. Notably, significant overlap exists between the HRD1 substrates identified by the protein-based and the peptide-based strategies, with clear cross-validation apparent both qualitatively and quantitatively, demonstrating the effectiveness of both strategies and furthering our understanding of HRD1 biology.

Induction of myeloproliferative disorder and myelofibrosis by thrombopoietin receptor W515 mutants is mediated by cytosolic tyrosine 112 of the receptor.

Constitutively active JAK2V617F and thrombopoietin receptor (TpoR) W515L/K mutants are major determinants of human myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). We show that a TpoRW515 mutation (W515A), which we detected in 2 myelofibrosis patients, and the Delta5TpoR active mutant, where the juxtamembrane R/KW(515)QFP motif is deleted, induce a myeloproliferative phenotype in mouse bone marrow reconstitution experiments. This phenotype required cytosolic Y112 of the TpoR. Phosphotyrosine immunoprofiling detected phosphorylated cytosolic TpoR Y78 and Y112 in cells expressing TpoRW515A. Mutation of cytosolic Y112 to phenylalanine prevented establishment of the in vivo phenotype and decreased constitutive active signaling by Delta5TpoR and TpoRW515A, especially via the mitogen-activated protein (MAP)-kinase pathway, without decreasing Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) activation. In contrast, mutation of cytosolic Y78 to phenylalanine enhanced the myeloproliferative syndrome induced by the TpoRW515 mutants, by enhancing receptor-induced JAK2 activation. We propose that TpoR cytosolic phosphorylated Y112 and flanking sequences could become targets for pharmacologic inhibition in MPNs.

Quantitative profiling of DNA damage and apoptotic pathways in UV damaged cells using PTMScan Direct.

Traditional methods for analysis of peptides using liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) lack the specificity to comprehensively monitor specific biological processes due to the inherent duty cycle limitations of the MS instrument and the stochastic nature of the analytical platform. PTMScan Direct is a novel, antibody-based method that allows quantitative LC-MS/MS profiling of specific peptides from proteins that reside in the same signaling pathway. New PTMScan Direct reagents have been produced that target peptides from proteins involved in DNA Damage/Cell Cycle and Apoptosis/Autophagy pathways. Together, the reagents provide access to 438 sites on 237 proteins in these signaling cascades. These reagents have been used to profile the response to UV damage of DNA in human cell lines. UV damage was shown to activate canonical DNA damage response pathways through ATM/ATR-dependent signaling, stress response pathways and induce the initiation of apoptosis, as assessed by an increase in the abundance of peptides corresponding to cleaved, activated caspases. These data demonstrate the utility of PTMScan Direct as a multiplexed assay for profiling specific cellular responses to various stimuli, such as UV damage of DNA.

24-hour lock mass protection.

The positive role and application of highly accurate mass measurements in proteomics is well documented. The new generation of hybrid FTMS and Q-TOF instruments, including the LTQ-Orbitrap (OT), is remarkable in their ability to routinely produce single-digit to subppm statistical mass accuracy while maintaining high analytical sensitivity. The use of mass calibrants (lock masses) to reduce the systematic error of mass-to-charge measurements has also been reported and, in some cases, incorporated in the instrument control software by the instrument manufacturers. We evaluated the use of one such calibrant in the OT (e.g., polydimethylcyclosiloxane, PCM) to study its impact on the rate of phosphopeptide annotation and found it to lack robustness under normal laboratory conditions. Therefore, we devised a strategy to improve its performance by increasing the external abundance of calibrant molecules in laboratory air. This resulted in a more robust performance of the preprogrammed lock mass recalibration feature as evidenced by improvements in both statistical mass accuracy and peptide annotation rates.

Signaling networks assembled by oncogenic EGFR and c-Met.

A major question regarding the sensitivity of solid tumors to targeted kinase inhibitors is why some tumors respond and others do not. The observation that many tumors express EGF receptor (EGFR), yet only a small subset with EGFR-activating mutations respond clinically to EGFR inhibitors (EGFRIs), suggests that responsive tumors uniquely depend on EGFR signaling for their survival. The nature of this dependence is not understood. Here, we investigate dependence on EGFR signaling by comparing non-small-cell lung cancer cell lines driven by EGFR-activating mutations and genomic amplifications using a global proteomic analysis of phospho-tyrosine signaling. We identify an extensive receptor tyrosine kinase signaling network established in cells expressing mutated and activated EGFR or expressing amplified c-Met. We show that in drug sensitive cells the targeted tyrosine kinase drives other RTKs and an extensive network of downstream signaling that collapse with drug treatment. Comparison of the signaling networks in EGFR and c-Met-dependent cells identify a "core network" of approximately 50 proteins that participate in pathways mediating drug response.

Maximizing the sensitivity and reliability of peptide identification in large-scale proteomic experiments by harnessing multiple search engines.

Despite recent advances in qualitative proteomics, the automatic identification of peptides with optimal sensitivity and accuracy remains a difficult goal. To address this deficiency, a novel algorithm, Multiple Search Engines, Normalization and Consensus is described. The method employs six search engines and a re-scoring engine to search MS/MS spectra against protein and decoy sequences. After the peptide hits from each engine are normalized to error rates estimated from the decoy hits, peptide assignments are then deduced using a minimum consensus model. These assignments are produced in a series of progressively relaxed false-discovery rates, thus enabling a comprehensive interpretation of the data set. Additionally, the estimated false-discovery rate was found to have good concordance with the observed false-positive rate calculated from known identities. Benchmarking against standard proteins data sets (ISBv1, sPRG2006) and their published analysis, demonstrated that the Multiple Search Engines, Normalization and Consensus algorithm consistently achieved significantly higher sensitivity in peptide identifications, which led to increased or more robust protein identifications in all data sets compared with prior methods. The sensitivity and the false-positive rate of peptide identification exhibit an inverse-proportional and linear relationship with the number of participating search engines.

Relationships among visual cycle retinoids, rhodopsin phosphorylation, and phototransduction in mouse eyes during light and dark adaptation.

Phosphorylation and regeneration of rhodopsin, the prototypical G-protein-coupled receptor, each can influence light and dark adaptation. To evaluate their relative contributions, we quantified rhodopsin, retinoids, phosphorylation, and photosensitivity in mice during a 90 min illumination followed by dark adaptation. During illumination, all-trans-retinyl esters and, to a lesser extent, all-trans-retinal accumulate and reach the steady state in <1 h. Each major phosphorylation site on rhodopsin reaches a steady state level of phosphorylation at a different time during illumination. The dominant factor that limits dark adaptation is isomerization of retinal. During dark adaptation, dephosphorylation of rhodopsin occurs in two phases. The faster phase corresponds to rapid dephosphorylation of regenerated rhodopsin present at the end of the illumination period. The slower phase corresponds to dephosphorylation of rhodopsin as it forms by regeneration. We conclude that rhodopsin phosphorylation has three physiological functions: it quenches phototransduction, reduces sensitivity during light adaptation, and suppresses bleached rhodopsin activity during dark adaptation.

Kinase domain mutants of Bcr-Abl exhibit altered transformation potency, kinase activity, and substrate utilization, irrespective of sensitivity to imatinib.

Kinase domain (KD) mutations of Bcr-Abl interfering with imatinib binding are the major mechanism of acquired imatinib resistance in patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukemia. Mutations of the ATP binding loop (p-loop) have been associated with a poor prognosis. We compared the transformation potency of five common KD mutants in various biological assays. Relative to unmutated (native) Bcr-Abl, the ATP binding loop mutants Y253F and E255K exhibited increased transformation potency, M351T and H396P were less potent, and the performance of T315I was assay dependent. The transformation potency of Y253F and M351T correlated with intrinsic Bcr-Abl kinase activity, whereas the kinase activity of E255K, H396P, and T315I did not correlate with transforming capabilities, suggesting that additional factors influence transformation potency. Analysis of the phosphotyrosine proteome by mass spectroscopy showed differential phosphorylation among the mutants, a finding consistent with altered substrate specificity and pathway activation. Mutations in the KD of Bcr-Abl influence kinase activity and signaling in a complex fashion, leading to gain- or loss-of-function variants. The drug resistance and transformation potency of mutants may determine the outcome of patients on therapy with Abl kinase inhibitors.

Immunoaffinity profiling of tyrosine phosphorylation in cancer cells.

Tyrosine kinases play a prominent role in human cancer, yet the oncogenic signaling pathways driving cell proliferation and survival have been difficult to identify, in part because of the complexity of the pathways and in part because of low cellular levels of tyrosine phosphorylation. In general, global phosphoproteomic approaches reveal small numbers of peptides containing phosphotyrosine. We have developed a strategy that emphasizes the phosphotyrosine component of the phosphoproteome and identifies large numbers of tyrosine phosphorylation sites. Peptides containing phosphotyrosine are isolated directly from protease-digested cellular protein extracts with a phosphotyrosine-specific antibody and are identified by tandem mass spectrometry. Applying this approach to several cell systems, including cancer cell lines, shows it can be used to identify activated protein kinases and their phosphorylated substrates without prior knowledge of the signaling networks that are activated, a first step in profiling normal and oncogenic signaling networks.

Complementary PTM Profiling of Drug Response in Human Gastric Carcinoma by Immunoaffinity and IMAC Methods with Total Proteome Analysis.

Gaining insight into normal cellular signaling and disease biology is a critical goal of proteomic analyses. The ability to perform these studies successfully to extract the maximum value and discovery of biologically relevant candidate biomarkers is therefore of primary importance. Many successful studies in the past have focused on total proteome analysis (changes at the protein level) combined with phosphorylation analysis by metal affinity enrichment (changes at the PTM level). Here, we use the gastric carcinoma cell line MKN-45 treated with the c-Met inhibitor SU11274 and PKC inhibitor staurosporine to investigate the most efficient and most comprehensive strategies for both total protein and PTM analysis. Under the conditions used, total protein analysis yielded few changes in response to either compound, while analysis of phosphorylation identified thousands of sites that changed differentially between the two treatments. Both metal affinity and antibody-based enrichments were used to assess phosphopeptide changes, and the data generated by the two methods was largely complementary (non-overlapping). Label-free quantitation of peptide peak abundances was used to accurately determine fold-changes between control and treated samples. Protein interaction network analysis allowed the data to be placed in a biologically relevant context, and follow-up validation of selected findings confirmed the accuracy of the proteomic data. Together, this study provides a framework for start-to-finish proteomic analysis of any experimental system under investigation to maximize the value of the proteomic study and yield the best chance for uncovering actionable target candidates.

Mass spectrometric analysis of the kinetics of in vivo rhodopsin phosphorylation.

On stimulation, rhodopsin, the light-sensing protein in the rod cells of the retina, is phosphorylated at several sites on its C terminus as the first step in deactivation. We have developed a mass spectrometry-based method to quantify the kinetics of phosphorylation at each site in vivo. After exposing either a freshly dissected mouse retina or the eye of an anesthetized mouse to a flash of light, phosphorylation and dephosphorylation reactions are terminated by rapidly homogenizing the retina or enucleated eye in 8 M urea. The C-terminal peptide containing all known phosphorylation sites is cleaved from rhodopsin, partially purified by ultracentrifugation, and analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LCMS). The mass spectrometer responds linearly to the peptide from 10 fmole to 100 pmole. The relative sensitivity to peptides with zero to five phosphates was determined using purified phosphopeptide standards. High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS) was used to distinguish the three primary sites of phosphorylation, Ser 334, Ser 338, and Ser 343. Peptides monophosphorylated on Ser 334 were separable from those monophosphorylated on Ser 338 and Ser 343 by reversed-phase HPLC. Although peptides monophosphorylated at Ser 338 and Ser 343 normally coelute, the relative amounts of each species in the single peak could be determined by monitoring the ratio of specific daughter ions characteristic of each peptide. Doubly phosphorylated rhodopsin peptides with different sites of phosphorylation also were distinguished by LCMS/MS. The sensitivity of these methods was evaluated by using them to measure rhodopsin phosphorylation stimulated either by light flashes or by continuous illumination over a range of intensities.

Proteomic analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa grown under magnesium limitation.

In this study, large-scale qualitative and quantitative proteomic technology was applied to the analysis of the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa grown under magnesium limitation, an environmental condition previously shown to induce expression of various virulence factors. For quantitative analysis, whole cell and membrane proteins were differentially labeled with isotope-coded affinity tag (ICAT) reagents and ICAT reagent-labeled peptides were separated by two-dimensional chromatography prior to analysis by electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) in an ion trap mass spectrometer (ITMS). To increase the number of protein identifications, gas-phase fractionation (GPF) in the m/z dimension was employed for analysis of ICAT peptides derived from whole cell extracts. The experiments confirmed expression of 1331 P. aeruginosa proteins of which 145 were differentially expressed upon limitation of magnesium. A number of conserved Gram-negative magnesium stress-response proteins involved in bacterial virulence were among the most abundant proteins induced in low magnesium. Comparative ICAT analysis of membrane versus whole cell protein indicated that growth of P. aeruginosa in low magnesium resulted in altered subcellular compartmentalization of large enzyme complexes such as ribosomes. This result was confirmed by 2-D PAGE analysis of P. aeruginosa outer membrane proteins. This study shows that large-scale quantitative proteomic technology can be successfully applied to the analysis of whole bacteria and to the discovery of functionally relevant biologic phenotypes.