A fully automated multi-functional ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography system for advanced proteome analyses

摘要

A multi-functional liquid chromatography system that performs 1-dimensional, 2-dimensional (strong cation exchange/reverse phase liquid chromatography, or SCX/RPLC) separations and online phosphopeptide enrichment using a single binary nano-flow pump has been developed. With a simple operation of a function selection valve equipped with a SCX column and a TiO2 (titanium dioxide) column, a fully automated selection of three different experiment modes was achieved. Because the current system uses essentially the same solvent flow paths, the same trap column, and the same separation column for reverse-phase separation of 1D, 2D, and online phosphopeptides enrichment experiments, the elution time information obtained from these experiments is in excellent agreement, which facilitates correlating peptide information from different experiments. The final reverse-phase separation of the three experiments is completely decoupled from all of function selection processes; thereby salts or acids from SCX or TiO2 column do not affect the efficiency of the reverse-phase separation.