Single-cell omics is critical in revealing population
heterogeneity,
discovering unique features of individual cells, and identifying minority
subpopulations of interest. As one of the major post-translational
modifications, protein N-glycosylation plays crucial
roles in various important biological processes. Elucidation of the
variation in N-glycosylation patterns at single-cell
resolution may largely facilitate the understanding of their key roles
in the tumor microenvironment and immune therapy. However, comprehensive N-glycoproteome profiling for single cells has not been
achieved due to the extremely limited sample amount and incompatibility
with the available enrichment strategies. Here, we have developed
an isobaric labeling-based carrier strategy for highly sensitive intact N-glycopeptide profiling for single cells or a small number
of rare cells without enrichment. Isobaric labeling has unique multiplexing
properties, by which the “total” signal from all channels
triggers MS/MS fragmentation for N-glycopeptide identification,
while the reporter ions provide quantitative information. In our strategy,
a carrier channel using N-glycopeptides obtained
from bulk-cell samples significantly improved the “total”
signal of N-glycopeptides and, therefore, promoted
the first quantitative analysis of averagely 260 N-glycopeptides from single HeLa cells. We further applied this strategy
to study the regional heterogeneity of N-glycosylation
of microglia in mouse brain and discovered region-specific N-glycoproteome patterns and cell subtypes. In conclusion,
the glycocarrier strategy provides an attractive solution for sensitive
and quantitative N-glycopeptide profiling of single/rare
cells that cannot be enriched by traditional workflows.