Abbreviations: ammonium bicarbonate: ABC; electron-transfer/higher-energy collisional dissociation: EThcD; higher-energy collisional dissociation: HCD; hydrophilic interaction chromatography: HILIC; multi-lectin weak affinity chromatography: M-LWAC; posttranslational modification: PTM; reverse phase: RP Abstract Protein glycosylation represents one of the most common and heterogeneous posttranslational modifications (PTMs) in human biology. Herein, an approach for the enrichment of glycopeptides using multi-lectin weak affinity chromatography (M-LWAC), followed by fractionation of the enriched material, and multi-mode fragmentation LC/MS is described. Two fragmentation methods, high-energy collision induced dissociation (HCD) and electron transfer dissociation (EThcD), were independently analyzed. While each fragmentation method provided similar glycopeptide coverage, there was some dependence on the glycoform identity. From these data a total of 7,503 unique glycopeptides belonging to 666 glycoproteins from the combined tissue types, human serum and brain, were identified. Of these, 617 glycopeptides (192 proteins) were found in both tissues; 2,006 glycopeptides (48 proteins) were unique to serum, and 4,880 glycopeptides (426 proteins) were unique to brain tissue. From 379 unique glycoforms, 1,420 unique sites of glycosylation were identified, with an average of four glycans 2 per site. Glycan occurrences were significantly different between tissue types: serum showed greater glycan diversity whereas brain tissue showed a greater abundance of the high mannose family. Glycosylation co-occurrence rates were determined, which enabled us to infer differences in underlying biosynthetic pathways.
Experimental procedures
Brain Lysate Sample PreparationBrain specimens from all subjects were obtained during autopsies conducted at the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner after receiving consent from the next-of-kin.Procedures were approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board and Committee for Oversight of Research Involving the Dead. Grey matter was harvested from the auditory cortex as previously described (40,41): Tissue slabs containing the superior temporal gyrus with Heschl's Gyrus located medial to the planum temporale were identified, and the superior temporal gyrus removed as single block. Grey matter (100 mg) was collected from HG by taking 100 μm frozen sections (40). Grey matter was homogenized in 1 mL of 8M urea with a FastPrep-24 benchtop homogenizer. Samples were stored at -20 ˚C.
Protein PreparationSera (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) was denatured using 8 M urea (Sigma-Aldrich, St.Louis MO) in 100 mM ammonium bicarbonate (pH 7.4, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis MO).Disulfide bonds were reduced using 1 mM tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) for 1 hour at 65 ˚C. Reduced cysteine residues were modified using 4.4 mM iodoacetamide (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) for 1 hour at room temperature. Following this, the sample was digested overnight at 37 ˚C with tryps...