PNNL

Abstract

Assessment of differential protein abundance from the observed properties of detected peptides is an essential part of protein profiling based on shotgun proteomics. However, the abundance observed for degenerate peptides may be due to contributions from multiple proteins that are affected differently by a given treatment. Excluding degenerate peptides eliminates this ambiguity but may significantly decrease the number of proteins for which abundance estimates can be obtained. Peptide degeneracy within a family of biologically related proteins does not cause ambiguity if family members have a common response to treatment. Based on this concept, we have developed an approach for including degenerate peptides in the analysis of differential protein abundance in protein profiling. Data from a recent proteomics study of lung tissue from mice exposed to lipopolysaccharide, cigarette smoke, and a combination of these agents is used to illustrate our method. Starting from data where about half of the protein identifications involved degenerate peptides, 82% of the affected proteins were grouped into families, based on FASTA annotation, with closure on peptide degeneracy. In many cases, a common abundance relative to control was sufficient to explain ion-current peak areas for peptides, both unique and degenerate, that identified biologically-related proteins in a peptide-degeneracy closure group. Based on these results, we propose that peptide-degeneracy closure groups provide a way to include abundance data for degenerate-peptides in quantitative protein profiling by high throughput mass spectrometry.