Improved Label-Free Quantification of Intact Proteoforms Using Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry

Anal Chem. 2023 Jun 13;95(23):9090-9096. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01534. Epub 2023 May 30.

Abstract

The high-throughput quantification of intact proteoforms using a label-free approach is typically performed on proteins in the 0-30 kDa mass range extracted from whole cell or tissue lysates. Unfortunately, even when high-resolution separation of proteoforms is achieved by either high-performance liquid chromatography or capillary electrophoresis, the number of proteoforms that can be identified and quantified is inevitably limited by the inherent sample complexity. Here, we benchmark label-free quantification of proteoforms of Escherichia coli by applying gas-phase fractionation (GPF) via field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS). Recent advances in Orbitrap instrumentation have enabled the acquisition of high-quality intact and fragmentation mass spectra without the need for averaging time-domain transients prior to Fourier transform. The resulting speed improvements allowed for the application of multiple FAIMS compensation voltages in the same liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry experiment without increasing the overall data acquisition cycle. As a result, the application of FAIMS to label-free quantification based on intact mass spectra substantially increases the number of both identified and quantified proteoforms without penalizing quantification accuracy in comparison to traditional label-free experiments that do not adopt GPF.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Escherichia coli / chemistry
  • Ion Mobility Spectrometry*
  • Proteins / analysis
  • Proteomics / methods
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry* / methods

Substances

  • Proteins