Ultrasensitive nanoscale proteomics approaches for characterizing proteins from complex proteomic samples of<50 ng of total mass are
describe
d. Protein i
dentificationsfrom 0.5 pg of whole proteome extracts were enable
d byultrahigh sensitivity (<75 zmol for in
divi
dual proteins)achieve
d using high-efficiency (peak capacities of ~10
3)15-
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
m-i.
d. capillary liqui
d chromatography separations(i.e., using nanoLC, ~20 nL/min mobile-phase flow rateat the optimal linear velocity of ~0.2 cm/s) couple
d on-line with a micro-soli
d-phase sample extraction an
d ananoscale electrospray ionization interface to a 11.4-TFourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) massspectrometer (MS). Proteome measurement coverageimprove
d as sample size was increase
d from as little as0.5 pg of sample. It was foun
d that a 2.5-ng sampleprovi
de
d 14% coverage of all annotate
d open rea
dingframes for the microorganism
Deinococcus radiodurans, consistent with previous results for a specificculture con
dition. The estimate
d detection
dynamic rangefor
detecte
d proteins was 10
5-10
6. An improve
d accuratemass an
d LC elution time two-
dimensional
data analysismetho
dology, use
d to both spee
d an
d increase the confi
dence of pepti
de/protein i
dentifications, enable
d i
dentification of 872 proteins/run from a single 3-h nanoLC/FTICR MS analysis. The low-zeptomole-level sensitivityprovi
des a basis for exten
ding proteomics stu
dies tosmaller cell populations an
d potentially to a single mammalian cell. Application with ion trap MS/MS instrumentation allowe
d protein i
dentification from 50 pg (totalmass) of proteomic samples (i.e., ~100 times larger thanFTICR MS), correspon
ding to a sensitivity of ~7 amol forin
divi
dual proteins. Compare
d with single-stage FTICRmeasurements, ion trap MS/MS provi
de
d a much lowerproteome measurement coverage an
d dynamic range fora given analysis time an
d sample quantity.