Simple chemical tools to expand the range of proteomics applications

Proteomics is an expanding technology with potential applications in many research fields. Even though many research groups do not have direct access to its main analytical technique, mass spectrometry, they can interact with proteomics core facilities to incorporate this technology into their projects. Protein identification is the analysis most frequently performed in core facilities and is, probably, the most robust procedure. Here we discuss a few chemical reactions that are easily implemented within the conventional protein identification workflow. Chemical modification of proteins with N-hydroxysuccinimide esters, 4-sulfophenyl isothiocyanate, O-methylisourea or through β-elimination/Michael addition can be easily performed in any laboratory. The reactions are quite specific with almost no side reactions. These chemical tools increase considerably the number of applications and have been applied to characterize protein-protein interactions, to determine the N-terminal residues of proteins, to identify proteins with non-sequenced genomes or to locate phosphorylated and O-glycosylated.