Project description:Multiplexed quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics is shaped by numerous opposing propositions. With the emergence of multiplexed single-cell proteomics, studies increasingly present single cell measurements in conjunction with an abundant congruent carrier to improve precursor selection and enhance identifications. While these extreme carrier spikes are often >100-times more abundant than the investigated samples, undoubtedly the total ion current increases but quantitative accuracy possibly is affected. We here focus on narrowly titrated carrier spikes (i.e. <20x) and evaluate the elimination of such for comparable sensitivity at superior accuracy. We find that subtle changes in the carrier ratio can severely impact measurement variability and describe alternative multiplexing strategies to evaluate data quality. Lastly, we demonstrate elevated replicate overlap, while preserving acquisition throughput at improved quantitative accuracy with DIA-TMT and discuss optimized experimental designs for multiplexed proteomics of trace samples. This comprehensive benchmarking gives an overview of currently available techniques and guides through conceptualizing the optimal single-cell proteomics experiment.
Project description:The use of internal calibrants (the so called lock mass approach) provides much greater accuracy in mass spectrometry based proteomics. However, the polydimethylcyclosiloxane (PCM) peaks commonly used for this purpose are quite unreliable, leading to missing calibrant peaks in spectra and correspondingly lower mass measurement accuracy. Therefore, we here introduce a universally applicable and robust internal calibrant, the tripeptide Asn3. We show that Asn3 is a substantial improvement over PCM both in terms of consistent detection and resulting mass measurement accuracy. Asn3 is also very easy to adopt in the lab, as it requires only minor adjustments to the analytical setup. Data analysis: For mass measurement accuracy (MMA) calculations and comparisons, the following Mascot workflow was used. From the MS/MS data in each LC run, Mascot Generic Files were created using Distiller software (version 2.4.3.3, Matrix Science, London, UK, www.matrixscience.com/distiller.html). These peak lists were then searched with the Mascot search engine (Matrix Science) using the Mascot Daemon interface (version 2.4.0, Matrix Science). Spectra were searched against the Swiss-Prot database (version 13_04 of UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot protein database containing 20,232 sequence entries of human proteins) concatenated with its reversed sequence database. Variable modifications were set to pyro-glutamate formation of amino terminal glutamine and acetylation of the protein N-terminus, whereas fixed modifications only included oxidation of methionine. Mass tolerance on peptide ions was set to 10 ppm (with Mascot’s C13 option set to 1), and the mass tolerance on peptide fragment ions was set to 20 millimass units (mmu), except for the space-charge effect experiment(LMA5) where an extra search was done with a setting of 3 mmu. The peptide charge was set to 1+,2+,3+ and instrument setting was put on ESI-QUAD. Enzyme was set to trypsin allowing for one missed cleavage, and cleavage was allowed when arginine or lysine is followed by proline. Only peptides that were ranked one and scored above the threshold score, set at 99% confidence, were withheld. All data was processed and managed by ms_lims.
Project description:The platelet releasate defined by quantitative reversed protein profiling. Dimethyl labeled proteins of platelets in resting (light label) and activated state (collagen and thrombin activation, intermediate label) from three healthy volunteers fractionated by SCX, analyzed on a LTQ Obitrap Velos using a data dependent decision tree method (HCD/ETD).Peak lists were generated from the raw data files using the Proteome Discoverer software package version 1.3.339. Peptide identification was performed by searching the individual peak lists (HCD, ETD-IT and ETD-FT) against a concatenated target-decoy database containing the human sequences in the Uniprot database (release 2012_06) supplemented with a common contaminants database using the Mascot search engine version 2.3 (Matrix Science, London, United Kingdom) via the Proteome Discoverer interface (version 1.3). The search parameters included the use of semitrypsin as proteolytic enzyme allowing up to a maximum of 2 missed cleavages. Carbamidomethylation of cysteines was set as a fixed modification whereas oxidation of methionines and the dimethyl light and intermediate labels on N-termini and lysine residues were set as variable modifications. Precursor mass tolerance was initially set at 50 ppm, while fragment mass tolerance was set at 0.6 Da for ETD-IT fragmentation and 0.05 Da for HCD and ETD-FT fragmentation. Subsequently, the peptide identifications were filtered for true mass accuracy <4 ppm and an ion score of 40 until an FDR <1% at peptide level was achieved.