Optimisation of Downscaled Tandem Affinity Purifications to Identify Core Protein Complexes

In this study we show that via stable, retroviral-expression of tagged EGFR del (L747-S752 deletion mutant) in the PC9 lung cancer cell line and stable doxycycline-inducible expression of tagged Grb2 using a Flp-mediated recombination HEK293 cell system, the SH-TAP can be downscaled to 5 to 12.5 mg total protein input (equivalent to 0.5 - 1 × 15 cm culture plate or 4 - 8 × 10⁶ cells). The major constituents of the EGFR del complex (USB3B, GRB2, ERRFI, HSP7C, GRP78, HSP71) and the Grb2 complex (ARHG5, SOS1, ARG35, CBL, CBLB, PTPRA, SOS2, DYN2, WIPF2, IRS4) were identified. Adjustment of the quantity of digested protein injected into the mass spectrometer reveals that optimisation is required as high quantities of material led to a decrease in protein sequence coverage and the loss of some interacting proteins. This investigation should aid other researchers in performing tandem affinity purifications in general, and in particular, from low quantities of input material.