Metal ions differed greatly in affinity towards phosphopeptides, and thus it is essential to systematically compare the phosphopeptides enrichment ability of different metal ions usually used in the IMAC techniques. In this work, for the first time, eight metal ions, including Nb 5+ , Ti 4+ , Zr 4+ , Ga 3+ , Y 3+ , In 3+ , Ce 4+ , Fe 3+ , were immobilized on the polydopamine (PDA)-coated Fe 3 O 4 (denoted as Fe 3 O 4 @PDA-M n+ ), and systematically compared by the real biosamples, in addition to standard phosphopeptides. Fe 3 O 4 microspheres were synthesized via the solvothermal reaction, followed by self-polymerization of dopamine on the surface. Then through taking advantage of the hydroxyl and amino group of PDA, the eight metal ions were easily adhered to the surface of Fe 3 O 4 @PDA. After characterization, the resultant Fe 3 O 4 @PDA-M n+ microspheres were applied to phosphopeptides enrichment based on the binding affinity between metal ions and phosphopeptides. According to the results, different metal ions presented diverse phosphopeptides enrichment efficiency in terms of selectivity, sensitivity and the enrichment ability from real complex samples, and Fe 3 O 4 @PDA-Nb 5+ and Fe 3 O 4 @PDA-Ti 4+ showed obvious advantages of the phosphopeptides enrichment effect after the comparison. This systematic comparison may provide certain reference for the use and development of IMAC materials in the future.
Metal binding proteins play many important roles in a broad range of biological processes. Characterization of metal binding proteins is important for understanding their structure and biological functions, thus leading to a clear understanding of metal associated diseases. The present study is the first to investigate the effectiveness of magnetic microspheres functionalized with metal cations (Ca2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Fe3+) as the absorbent matrix in IMAC technology to enrich metal containing/binding proteins. The putative metal binding proteins in rat liver were then globally characterized by using this strategy which is very easy to handle and can capture a number of metal binding proteins effectively. In total, 185 putative metal binding proteins were identified from rat liver including some known less abundant and membrane-bound metal binding proteins such as Plcg1, Acsl5, etc. The identified proteins are involved in many important processes including binding, catalytic activity, translation elongation factor activity, electron carrier activity, and so on.