COMPARTMENTALIZED EVOLUTION OF PROTEASES FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY-BASED PROTEOMICS

摘要

Proteases are an important class of enzymes ripe for evolution of new function, both as potential therapeutics and as sample preparation tools. Mass spectrometric mapping and discovery of protein posttranslational modifications, a revolutionary new technology in proteomics, begins with tryptic digestion. Regions of protein sequence deficient in tryptic cleavage sites cannot be ionized and mass analyzed, and there are essentially no other proteolytic tools if trypsin digestion does not yield full protein sequence coverage. Compartmentalized selection of proteases with orthogonal specificity can be accomplished with a microfluidic-based platform, addressing a critical need in mass spectrometry proteomics.