Can I read β-elimination: An unexpected artefact in proteome analysis on EtoBox?

β-elimination: An unexpected artefact in proteome analysis by Ben Herbert; Femia Hopwood; David Oxley; John McCarthy; Matt Laver; J. Grinyer; A. Goodall; Keith Williams; Annalisa Castagna; Pier Giorgio Righetti is a Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology article available to read on EtoBox.

What is β-elimination: An unexpected artefact in proteome analysis about?

## Abstract Two persistent myths, ingrained in the electrophoretic literature of the last thirty years, namely carbamylation and deamidation, have been recently dispelled (Herbert __et al.__, __J. Proteome Res__. 2002, in press). We report here, for the first time, a noxious and unexpected artefact in proteome analysis: β‐elimination (or desulfuration), which results on the loss of an H~2~S group (34 Da) from cysteine (Cys) residues for protein focusing in the alkaline pH region. With such an elimination event, a dehydro alanine residue is generated at the Cys site. In turn, the presence of a double bond in this position elicits lysis of the peptide bond, generating a number of peptides of fairly large size from an intact protein. The first process seems to be favored by the electric field, probably due to the continuous harvesting of the SH^‐^ anion produced. The only remedy found to this noxious degradation pathway is the reduction and alkylation of all Cys residues prior to their exposure to the electric field. Alkylation appears to substantially reduce both β‐elimination and the subsequent amido bond lysis.

Who reads β-elimination: An unexpected artefact in proteome analysis?

Author

Ben Herbert; Femia Hopwood; David Oxley; John McCarthy; Matt Laver; J. Grinyer; A. Goodall; Keith Williams; Annalisa Castagna; Pier Giorgio Righetti

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); John Wiley & Sons Ltd.; Wiley; Research Square (ISSN 1615-9853)

Published

2003

Language

EN

Field

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)