Improved detection and consistency of RNA-interacting proteomes using DIA SILAC

The RNA-interacting proteome is commonly characterized by UV-crosslinking followed by RNA purification, with protein recovery quantified using SILAC labeling followed by data-dependent acquisition (DDA) of proteomic data. However, the low efficiency of UV-crosslinking, combined with limited sensitivity of the DDA approach often restricts detection to relatively abundant proteins, necessitating multiple mass spec injections of fractionated peptides for each biological sample. Here we report an application of data-independent acquisition (DIA) with SILAC in a total RNA-associated protein purification (TRAPP) UV-crosslinking experiment. This gave 15% greater protein detection and lower inter-replicate variation relative to the same biological materials analyzed using DDA, while allowing single-shot analysis of the sample. As proof of concept, we determined the effects of arsenite treatment on the RNA-bound proteome of HEK293T cells. The DIA dataset yielded similar GO term enrichment for RNA-binding proteins involved in cellular stress responses to the DDA dataset while detecting extra proteins unseen by DDA. Overall, the DIA SILAC approach improved detection of proteins over conventional DDA SILAC for generating RNA-interactome datasets, at a lower cost due to reduced machine time. Analyses are described for TRAPP data, but the approach is suitable for proteomic analyses following essentially any RNA-binding protein enrichment technique.