We combined and compared different published protocols. Since the most common method for LMD samples is in-solution digestion with the serine protease trypsin, an adapted protocol was selected accordingly (14, 21). In addition, two published SP3 protocols based on paramagnetic beads were used, which are promisingly applicable for small sample volumes (25, 26). The protocols worked very well on cells like yeast, HeLa, mouse embryonic stem and neural progenitor cells (25, 26). For the lysis, besides RapiGest™ and LDS as used in the mentioned protocols, formic acid was also tested as an alternative. This variant was successfully applied to muscle cells at our institute (27).
In total, six different combinations of tissue lysis and digestion were tested (see Table 1). For every protocol three different replicates were used. Each replicate contained one million µm2 post-mortem tissue from the same neurological healthy case (see Fig. 1).
For every replicate, the number of peptide spectrum matches (PSMs) unique peptides, identified and quantified protein groups (PGs) was determined. As an evaluation criterion the mean number as well as the standard deviation (SD) for every protocol was calculated. For the assessment of the analytical variability, three replicates of HeLa standards were added to the batch. Based on the numbers of quantified PGs an analytical variability of 6.8% (CV) was computed (see Table S2).
Table 1
Overview of the used protocols with the corresponding numbers, names and references.
No.
|
Name
|
Ref.
|
1
|
RapiGest™ & SP3
|
(25)
|
2
|
LDS & SP3
|
(25)
|
3
|
RapiGest™ & modified SP3
|
(26)
|
4
|
Formic acid & modified SP3
|
(26, 27)
|
5
|
RapiGest™ & in-solution digestion
|
(21)
|
6
|
Formic acid & in-solution digestion
|
(21, 27)
|
The mean number of PSMs of each protocol is shown in Fig. 2A. The combination of formic acid with in-solution digestion shows the highest number of PSMs (16685 PSMs). Protocol RapiGest™ & SP3 produced the lowest mean number of PSMs (8277 PSMs). These numbers result in the unique peptides shown in Fig. 2A. Again, formic acid & in-solution digestion has the highest number of unique peptides (10313) and RapiGest™ & SP3 resulted in the lowest number of unique peptides (4780). Formic acid & in-solution digestion shows the lowest deviation in PSMs and unique peptides between the three replicates (black error bar, Fig. 2A).
In the next step, an evaluation of the identified and quantified PGs was performed. The results are shown in Fig. 2B. Formic acid & in-solution digestion shows the highest number of identified (2123) and quantified (1596) PGs. The smallest number of PGs was achieved with formic acid & modified SP3 (identified PGs: 1541 & quantified PGs: 1137). Regarding the SD, formic acid & in-solution digestion is again characterized by the smallest deviation for the identified and quantified PGs. In contrast, RapiGest™ & SP3 protocol has the highest SD.
In summary, these results show that formic acid & in-solution digestion quantitatively achieves optimal results at the level of peptides and proteins for small amounts of SN tissue enriched by LMD.
In order to confirm the previous results on a qualitative level, the ratio of the joint unique peptides to the total number of unique peptides between the three replicates was additionally determined for each protocol. This means a unique peptide that appears in only 3 of the 3 replicates meet this criterion. It was also performed for the identified and quantified PGs. The higher the calculated ratio in percentage, the higher the reproducibility for the results obtained from Fig. 2. Furthermore, the coefficient of variation (CV) was calculated for the quantified protein groups as an additional factor for the assessment of reproducibility and quantification. In this way, the CV can be used to make a statement about the performance of the quantification. A small CV indicates a low variance between the LFQ intensities of the three replicates. The calculated data are shown in Table 2 below. Formic acid & in-solution digestion has the highest values at the calculated ratios and at the same time the lowest CV. In contrast, RapiGest™ & SP3, LDS & SP3 and RapiGest™ & in-solution digestion have almost twice the CV and in some cases significantly lower ratios at both protein and peptide level.
Table 2
Assessment of reproducibility and quantification for the MaxQuant analysis without “match between runs”. For each protocol, the number of consistently identified unique peptides, PGs and quantified PGs was established and divided by the corresponding total number. Consistently means that for example a unique peptide was detected in all three replicates. The calculated ratio is given in percentage. The CV for each quantified PG was determined. The given CV is the median percentage for all shared quantified PGs for each protocol. Protocols: RapiGest™ & SP3 (1), LDS & SP3 (2), RapiGest™ & modified SP3 (3), Formic acid & modified SP3 (4), RapiGest™ & in-solution digestion (5), Formic acid & in-solution digestion (6). Abbreviations: Consistently (con.), identified (ident.), unique peptides (un. pep.), number (no.), quantified (quant.).
Protocol
|
Con. ident. un. pep. /Total no.
|
Total no. un. pep.
|
Con. ident. PGs /Total no.
|
Total no. ident. PGS
|
Con. quant. PGs /Total no.
|
Total no. quant. PGs
|
Median CV
(Quant. PGs)
|
1
|
33.0%
|
7892
|
53.6%
|
2094
|
28.1%
|
2080
|
15.8%
|
2
|
31.3%
|
9865
|
56.3%
|
2240
|
28.0%
|
2219
|
18.8%
|
3
|
38.2%
|
9094
|
64.5%
|
2102
|
36.0%
|
2059
|
14.4%
|
4
|
39.6%
|
8427
|
63.3%
|
1764
|
36.6%
|
1751
|
12.7%
|
5
|
37.1%
|
9602
|
62.8%
|
2404
|
30.2%
|
2301
|
16.3%
|
6
|
52.8%
|
14090
|
75.3%
|
2390
|
47.6%
|
2332
|
8.2%
|
These results give detailed information about different identified and quantified PGs between the replicates for every protocol. However, different lysis methods can generate different types of proteins, e.g. membrane proteins. In order to check whether there is a large discrepancy between formic acid & in-solution digestion and the other individual protocols, a comparison of the protein accession numbers was carried out. Only PGs identified in all three replicates were used. The associated Venn-diagrams are shown in Fig. 2. The lowest concordance is around 82% (Fig. 2E, RapiGest™ & in-solution digestion). In comparison, formic acid & in-solution digestion even shows a 99% match to the identified PGs of LDS & SP3 (Fig. 2B). The average value for all five comparisons towards formic acid & in-solution digestion is about 90%. Therefore, this protocol has a very high concordance of PGs identified in all three replicates. Similar results can be observed for the PGs quantified in all three replicates (average value: 92%; Figure S1). The average value of accordance for the PGs identified and quantified in one of the three replicates is lower but still above 80% (Figure S2 and Figure S3).
For a further literature comparison, we analyzed our data with the settings “match between runs”. When using this setting we identified for formic acid & in-solution digestion 11428 unique peptides and 2300 PGs as well as quantified 1827 PGs (Figure A4). The results for all used protocols are shown in the supplementary information.
In summary, the combination of formic acid and in-solution digestion shows the best performance in terms of the number of resulting PSMs (Fig. 2A). It exhibits the most unique peptides (Fig. 2B), the highest number of identified PGs (Fig. 2C) as well as quantified PGs (Fig. 2D). Moreover, this protocol has the lowest SD (Fig. 2) and CV (see Table 2), but it equally has the highest percentage of consistently identified peptides, PGs and quantified PGs (see Table 2). Moreover, it has a very high level of consistency with the other protocols in terms of the identified and quantified PGs.