In Vivo Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins Using Enhanced Multiplexing Proteomics

In vivo fast photochemical oxidation of proteins (IV-FPOP) is a hydroxyl radical protein footprinting method used to study protein structure and protein–protein interactions. Oxidatively modified proteins by IV-FPOP are analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS), and the extent of oxidation is quantified by label-free MS. Peptide oxidation changes yield useful information about protein structure, due to changes in solvent accessibility. However, the sample size necessary for animal studies requires increased sample preparation and instrument time. Here, we report the combined application of IV-FPOP and the enhanced multiplexing strategy combined precursor isotopic labeling and isobaric tagging (cPILOT) for higher-throughput analysis of oxidative modifications in C. elegans. Key differences in the performance of label-free MS and cPILOT were identified. The addition of oxygen (+16) was the most abundant modification identified among all known possible FPOP modifications. This study presents IV-FPOP coupled with enhanced multiplexing strategies such as cPILOT to increase throughput of studies seeking to examine oxidative protein modifications.