We present an optimized tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling protocol that includes detailed information for each of the following steps: protein extraction, quantification, precipitation, digestion, labeling, submission to a proteomics facility, and data analyses.
Proteomic technologies are powerful methodologies that can aid our understanding of mechanisms of action in biological systems by providing a global view of the impact of a disease, treatment, or other condition on the proteome as a whole. This report provides a detailed protocol for the extraction, quantification, precipitation, digestion, labeling, and subsequent data analysis of protein samples. Our optimized TMT labeling protocol requires a lower tag-label concentration and achieves consistently reliable data. We have used this protocol to evaluate protein expression profiles in a variety of mouse tissues (i.e., heart, skeletal muscle, and brain) as well as cells cultured in vitro. In addition, we demonstrate how to evaluate thousands of proteins from the resulting dataset.
The term "proteomics" was first defined as the large-scale characterization of the entire protein complement of a cell, tissue, or organism1. Proteomic analyses enable the investigation of mechanisms and cellular processes involved in disease development, therapeutic pathways, and healthy systems using techniques to perform relative quantitation of protein expression levels2. The initial descriptions of such studies were published in 1975 and demonstrated the use of two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) for this purpose1,3. The 2D method separates proteins based on charge (isoelectric focusing, IEF) and molecular mass (sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, or SDS-PAGE)4. For years, the combination of 2D-PAGE and subsequent tandem mass spectrometry performed on each gel component was the most common untargeted protein expression analysis technique performed and identified numerous previously unknown protein expression profiles5,6. General disadvantages to the 2D-PAGE approach are that it is time-consuming, does not work well for hydrophobic proteins, and there are limitations in the total number of proteins assessed due to low sensitivity7,8.
The stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) method became the next popular approach to identify and quantify protein abundance in samples9. It consists of metabolic labeling of cells that are incubated in medium lacking a standard essential amino acid and supplemented with an isotope-labeled version of that specific amino acid10. The advantage of this technique is its efficiency and precise labeling9. The main limitation to the SILAC approach is primarily the reduced cell growth rate caused by isotope label incorporation, which can be particularly challenging in relatively sensitive cell lines modeling human diseases11.
In 2003, a novel and robust proteomics technique involving tandem mass tag (TMT) isobaric labels was introduced to the field12. TMT labeling is a powerful method due to its increased sensitivity to detect relative protein expression levels and posttranslational modifications13. As of this publication date, TMT kits have been developed that can simultaneously label 6, 10, 11, or 16 samples. As a result, it is possible to measure peptide abundance in multiple conditions with biological replicates at the same time14,15,16. We recently used TMT to characterize the cardiac proteomic profile of a mouse model of Barth Syndrome (BTHS)17. In so doing, we were able to demonstrate widespread improvement in the cardiac profiles of BTHS mice treated with gene therapy and identify novel proteins impacted by BTHS that revealed novel therapeutic pathways involved in cardiomyopathies.
Here, we describe a detailed method to perform multiplex TMT quantitative proteomics analyses using tissue samples or cell pellets. It can be beneficial to perform the sample preparation and labeling prior to submission to a core because the labeled tryptic peptides are more stable than raw frozen samples, not all cores have experience handling all sample types, and preparing samples in a laboratory can save time for cores, which often have long backlogs. For detailed descriptions of the mass spectroscopy portion of this process please see Kirshenbaum et al. and Perumal et al.18,19.
The sample preparation protocol consists of the following major steps: extraction, quantification, precipitation, digestion, and labeling. The major benefits of this optimized protocol are that it reduces the costs of labeling, improves protein extraction, and consistently generates high-quality data. In addition, we describe how to analyze TMT data to screen thousands of proteins in a short amount of time. We hope that this protocol encourages other research groups to consider incorporating this powerful methodology into their studies.
The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee from University of Florida approved all animal studies.
1. Preparation of reagents
2. Protein extraction
3. Protein measurement
4. Reducing/alkylating reagent treatment
5. Methanol/chloroform precipitation20
6. Protein digestion
7. Peptide labeling
8. Mass spectroscopy
9. Data analysis
10. Methods to evaluate significant hits
11. Proteomic data upload to a repository bank
Healthy and diseased cells were lysed in CHAPS buffer, prepared as detailed in our TMT labeling method, and submitted to the University of Florida Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (UF-ICBR) Proteomics Core for Liquid Chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Following data acquisition and delivery from the core, the dataset was opened in vendor-supplied software and the following cutoff filters were applied: ≥2 unique peptides, reporter ions for each protein sample present in all channels, and include only significantly altered proteins (p ≤ 0.05). Table 1 summarizes the data: 39,653 total peptides, of which 7,211 have equal or greater than two unique peptides, and 3,829 include reporter ions for all channels. The p values for these 3,829 peptides were calculated by Student's t test and p ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. In addition, a fold-change cutoff was used to determine the relative distribution of proteins from diseased compared to healthy cells: downregulated (blue) or upregulated (red) (Figure 1).
The list of significantly dysregulated protein expression was assessed using the PANTHER ontology classification system and STRING analyses. Panther analyses showed a categorized list of proteins based upon significantly lower (Figure 2A) or higher abundance in diseased cells based upon molecular function (Figure 2B). String analyses of proteins of significantly lower (Figure 2C) and higher (Figure 2D) abundance identified multiple interactions and strong associations between proteins.
Figure 1: Volcano plot displaying proteins whose abundance was not significantly altered (black), significantly lowered (blue), or significantly increased (red) in diseased vs. healthy control cells. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2: Representative evaluations of significantly dysregulated hits identified by PANTHER (A, B) and String (C, D) of significantly lower or higher abundance proteins. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Total peptides | Total identified | ≥ 2 unique peptides | Quantified proteins | Significantly altered proteins | |
Low | High | ||||
39653 | 7211 | 4457 | 3829 | 296 | 108 |
Table 1: Representative table of quantified proteins per dataset analysis.
To successfully prepare samples for proteomic analysis using TMT-based isobaric stable isotope labeling methodologies, it is crucial to perform protein extractions very carefully at 4 °C and to use a lysis buffer that contains a protease inhibitor cocktail24,25. The protease inhibitor cocktail is a crucial reagent to avoid unexpected protein degradation during protein digestion. One key difference between our protocol and the current one provided by the vendor is that we strongly recommend the use of CHAPS lysis buffer based upon our experience with mammalian cells and tissues. We also suggest using a methanol/chloroform protein precipitation approach for both cell pellets and tissues.
Ideally, protein extraction, measurement, reducing/alkylating reagent treatments, and methanol/chloroform precipitations are all performed on the same day. Following this recommendation will result in more accurate protein concentrations for subsequent labeling. The protein precipitation step is important for the removal of reagents that will interfere with tandem mass spectrometry. Including the precipitation step significantly enhances the resolution of TMT26. In sum, the major advantages of our TMT protocol are the high labeling efficiencies for different types of samples, its reproducibility, and the reliable data acquired.
As the multiplex nature of this TMT untargeted proteomics strategy continues to expand, it will progressively enhance the ability of researchers across a wide variety of fields to make novel discoveries. Specifically in the biomedical field, we and others have found this technology increasingly informative in studies exploring novel mechanisms of action in disease and relative impacts of various therapeutics. For all of these reasons, this powerful technology complements the repertoire of other OMICS approaches used in modern research studies and provides key information that can guide further therapeutic development.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
We would like to acknowledge the UF-ICBR proteomics facility for their processing of our samples. This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health R01 HL136759-01A1 (CAP).
1 M Triethylammonium bicarbonate (TEAB), 50 mL | Thermo Fisher | 90114 | Reagent for protein labeling |
50% Hydroxylamine, 5 mL | Thermo Fisher | 90115 | Reagent for protein labeling |
Acetic acid | Sigma | A6283 | Reagent for protein digestion |
Anhydrous acetonitrile, LC-MS Grade | Thermo Fisher | 51101 | Reagent for protein labeling |
Benzonaze nuclease | Sigma-Aldrich | E1014 | DNA shearing |
Bond-Breaker TCEP solution, 5 mL | Thermo Fisher | 77720 | Reagent for protein labeling |
BSA standard | Thermo | 23209 | Reagent for protein measurement |
CHAPS | Thermo Fisher | 28300 | Reagent for protein extraction |
Chloroform | Fisher | BP1145-1 | Reagent for protein precipitation |
cOmplete, EDTA-free Protease Inhibitor Cocktail Tablet | Roche | 4693132001 | Reagent for protein extraction |
DC Protein Assay | BioRad | 500-0116 | Reagent for protein measurement |
Excel | Microsoft Office | Software for data analyses | |
Heat block | VWR analog | 12621-104 | Equipment for protein digestion incubation |
HEPES | Sigma | RDD002 | Reagent for protein extraction |
Methanol | Fisher | A452-4 | Reagent for protein precipitation |
Pierce Trypsin Protease, MS Grade | Thermo Fisher | 90058 | Reagent for protein digestion |
Potassium chloride | Sigma | 46436 | Reagent for protein extraction |
Sigma Plot 14.0 | Sigma Plot 14.0 | Software for data analyses | |
Sonicator | Fisher Scientific | FB120 | DNA shearing |
Spectra Max i3x Multi-Mode Detection Platform | Molecular Devices | Plate reader for protein measurement | |
Thermo Scientific Pierce Quantitative Colorimetric Peptide Assay | Thermo Fisher | 23275 | Reagent for protein measurement |
Thermo Scientific Pierce Quantitative Fluorescent Peptide Assay | Thermo Fisher | 23290 | Reagent for protein measurement |
Thermo Scientific Proteome Discoverer Software | Thermo Fisher | OPTON-30945 | Software for data analyses |
TMT 10plex Isobaric Label Reagent Set 0.8 mg, sufficient reagents for one 10plex isobaric experiment | Thermo Fisher | 90110 | Reagent for protein labeling |
TMT11-131C Label Reagent 5 mg | Thermo Fisher | A34807 | Reagent for protein labeling |
Water, LC-MS Grade | Thermo Fisher | 51140 | Reagent for protein extraction |