We thank SP Gygi and GM Church for help and guidance. This work was supported by a CNRS chaire d'excellence to ACT.

NOTE: This method was previously described12.
1. Protein Isolation
Prepare 1 mg of cellular protein by lysing cells, preferably by physical methods such as French press, bead beating, or sonication. Avoid lysozyme-mediated cell lysis because the enzyme will confound mass spectrometry measurements.
2. TCA Precipitation of Proteins
Add 1 volume trichloroacetic acid (TCA) to 4 volumes protein and chill on i...

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Several points make stable isotope labeling of peptides using reductive dimethylation (ReDi labeling) an attractive method for quantitative proteomics: inexpensive labeling reagents (reagents cost less than $1 per sample), fast reaction rate (~10 min), absence of side products, high reproducibility (Figures&#160;3, 4), stable reaction products, ability to use any protease, and high ionization efficiency of labeled peptides. Chemical labeling by ReDi is also advantageous relative to metabolic labeling sin...

Measuring concentration differences of many proteins between complex samples is a central challenge in proteomics. Increasingly, this is being done by labeling proteins in each sample with different isotopic tags, combining the samples, and using mass spectrometry to quantify concentration differences. Several methods exist for stable isotopic labeling of proteins and peptides. 15N labeling1 and SILAC2 introduce isotopic labels metabolically in vivo, whereas iCAT3, iTRAQ4, and reduction dimethylation5 add stable isotope tags after protein extraction and digestion. Among these methods, reductive dimethylation (ReDi labeling) is gaining popularity as an inexpensive, reproducible method to quantify protein concentration differences in nearly any type of sample.
ReDi labeling involves reacting peptides with formaldehyde to form a Schiff base, which is then reduced by cyanoborohydride. This reaction dimethylates free amino groups on N-termini and lysine side chains and monomethylates N-terminal prolines. The protocol described here methylates peptides in sample 1 with a &#8220;light&#8221; label using reagents with hydrogen atoms in their natural isotopic distribution and sample 2 with a &#8220;heavy&#8221; label using deuterated formaldehyde and cyanoborohydride (Figure&#160;1). Each dimethylated amino group on a peptide results in a mass difference of 6.0377 Da between light and heavy forms, which is employed to distinguish between the two forms using a mass spectrometer. Specifically, relative peptide abundances are quantified as the ratio of MS1 extracted ion chromatogram areas (MS1 peak area ratio) of light and heavy version for each peptide ion pair. The relative abundance of a protein is calculated as the median MS1 peak area ratio among all peptides in the protein. In this report, we describe a robust protocol for conducting ReDi labeling experiments by LC-MS/MS that includes reversed-phase peptide solid-phase extraction, on-column ReDi labeling, peptide fractionation by basic pH reversed phase (BPRP) chromatography, and purification of peptide mixtures using StageTips (Figure&#160;2). We discuss advantages and limitations of using ReDi labeling for quantitative proteomics.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="973">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;width:377px;">trichloroacetic acid</td>
			<td style="width:141px;">Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">T9159</td>
			<td style="width:319px;">protein precipitation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">acetone</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">650501</td>
			<td>protein precipitation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">Sodium dodecyl sulfate</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">71736</td>
			<td>denature, reduce protein</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">sodium hydroxide</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">S8045</td>
			<td>denature, reduce protein</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">DL-Dithiothreitol</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">43816</td>
			<td>denature, reduce, alkylate protein</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">protease Inhibitor Complete Mini Cocktail</td>
			<td>Roche</td>
			<td>4693124001</td>
			<td>denature, reduce protein</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">iodoacetamide</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>I6125</td>
			<td>alkylate protein</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">HEPES</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">H7523</td>
			<td>resuspend, extract, label protein</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">calcium chloride</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">C5670</td>
			<td>resuspend protein</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;width:377px;">Lysyl Endoprotease</td>
			<td>Wako Chemicals</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">129-02541</td>
			<td>protein digestion</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">sequencing grade trypsin</td>
			<td>Promega</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">V5111</td>
			<td>protein digestion</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">acetic acid</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">320099</td>
			<td>protein digestion</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">trifluoroacetic acid</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>299537</td>
			<td>Reversed-phase peptide extraction</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">tC18 Sep-Pak C18 cartridges</td>
			<td>Waters</td>
			<td>WAT054960</td>
			<td>Reversed-phase peptide extraction</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">extraction manifold</td>
			<td>Waters</td>
			<td>WAT200609</td>
			<td>Reversed-phase peptide extraction</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">acetonitrile</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">14261</td>
			<td>various</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">formaldehyde</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>252549</td>
			<td>&#8220;light&#8221; peptide labeling</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">cyanoborohydride</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">71435</td>
			<td>&#8220;light&#8221; peptide labeling</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">deuterated formaldehyde</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>492620</td>
			<td>&#8220;heavy&#8221; peptide labeling</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">sodium cyanoborodeuteride</td>
			<td>CDN isotopes</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">D-1797</td>
			<td>&#8220;heavy&#8221; peptide labeling</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">MES</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>M3671</td>
			<td>peptide labeling</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">C18-HPLC column (4.6 x 250 mm, 5 &#181;m particle size)</td>
			<td>Agilent</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">770450-902</td>
			<td>basic pH reversed-phase chromatography</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">formic acid</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">399388</td>
			<td>various</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">C18 Empore Disks</td>
			<td>3M</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">14-386-3&#160;</td>
			<td>STAGE tips</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="19">
			<td height="19" style="height:19px;">methanol</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:136px;">494437</td>
			<td>STAGE tips</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

quantitative proteomics using reductive dimethylation for stable isotope labeling

Stable isotope labeling of peptides by reductive dimethylation (ReDi labeling) is a method to accurately quantify protein expression differences between samples using mass spectrometry. ReDi labeling is performed using either regular (light) or deuterated (heavy) forms of formaldehyde and sodium cyanoborohydride to add two methyl groups to each free amine. Here we demonstrate a robust protocol for ReDi labeling and quantitative comparison of complex protein mixtures. Protein samples for comparison are digested into peptides, labeled to carry either light or heavy methyl tags, mixed, and co-analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Relative protein abundances are quantified by comparing the ion chromatogram peak areas of heavy and light labeled versions of the constituent peptide extracted from the full MS spectra. The method described here includes sample preparation by reversed-phase solid phase extraction, on-column ReDi labeling of peptides, peptide fractionation by basic pH reversed-phase (BPRP) chromatography, and StageTip peptide purification. We discuss advantages and limitations of ReDi labeling with respect to other methods for stable isotope incorporation. We highlight novel applications using ReDi labeling as a fast, inexpensive, and accurate method to compare protein abundances in nearly any type of sample.

We evaluated the accuracy, precision, and reproducibility of ReDi labeling using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Clostridium phytofermentans whole cell lysates. We first quantified the ReDi labeling efficiency of a mix of C. phytofermentans protein lysates from cellulose (heavy labeled, H) and glucose (light label, L) cultures. When filtered to a 1% peptide false discovery rate, this sample contained 11,194 unique peptide sequences with a 98% ReDi labeling efficiency. Unfractionated S. cerevis...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Quantitative Proteomics Using Reductive Dimethylation for Stable Isotope Labeling at JoVE.com

Quantitative Proteomics Using Reductive Dimethylation for Stable Isotope Labeling

Stable isotope labeling of peptides by reductive dimethylation (ReDi labeling) is a rapid, inexpensive strategy for accurate mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics. Here we demonstrate a robust method for preparation and analysis of protein mixtures using the ReDi approach that can be applied to nearly any sample type.

Stable isotope labeling of peptides by reductive dimethylation (ReDi labeling) is a method to accurately quantify protein expression differences between ...

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15.9K Views.  Genoscope. Stable isotope labeling of peptides by reductive dimethylation (ReDi labeling) is a rapid, inexpensive strategy for accurate mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics. Here we demonstrate a robust method for preparation and analysis of protein mixtures using the ReDi approach that can be applied to nearly any sample type. 