“…The protein extracts (10 μg/sample) were subjected to shotgun proteomics using a direct nanoflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system, as described previously [ 67 ]. Briefly, the extracts were digested with 25 pmol of trypsin, desalted using ZipTip C 18 (Millipore, Billerica, MA), concentrated, and injected into a direct nanoflow liquid chromatography system (DiNa-2A, KYA Technologies, Tokyo, Japan) coupled to the LTQ-Orbitrap Velos mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bremen, Germany), as described previously [ 67 ]. After applying the peptide mixture to a C 18 column (800 μm inner diameter x 3 mm long), reversed-phase separation of the captured peptides was performed using a column (150 μm inner diameter x 150 mm long) filled with HiQ sil C 18 (3 μm particles, 120Å pore; KYA Technologies, Tokyo, Japan).…”