Characterization of protein serotonylation via bioorthogonal labeling and enrichment

Protein serotonylation is a transglutaminase-mediated phenomenon whose biological mechanism of protein serotonylation is not yet fully understood, as the complete profiling of serotonylation targets in a proteome remains a critical challenge to date. Utilizing an alkyne-functionalized serotonin derivative bioorthogonally coupled to a cleavable linker, we developed a method to selectively enrich serotonylated proteins in a complex sample. With online nanoflow liquid chromatography and LTQ-Orbitrap Velos hybrid mass spectrometer detection, we identified 46 proteins with 50 serotonylation sites at their glutamine residues. Mass spectrometric analysis also generated direct residue-level evidence of various biological processes such as transglutaminase-chaperon interactions as well as actin assembly. An enrichment workflow utilizing click chemistry and on-bead digestion allowed us to achieve site-specific identification of protein serotonylation by mass spectrometry, and results obtained hereby also provided a great foundation in the elucidation of the true roles of protein serotonylation in biological systems.