isoAsp-Quest: workflow development for isoAsp identification using database searches

A recent study reported that isomerization of aspartyl residues (Asp) occurs in various tissues and proteins in vivo. For a comprehensive analysis of post-translational modifications, the mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic approach is a straightforward method; however, the isomerization of Asp does not alter its molecular weight. Therefore, a unique method is required to analyse Asp isomers using MS. Herein, we present a novel strategy, isoAsp-Quest, which is a database search-oriented isoAsp identification method. isoAsp is specifically converted to 18O-labelled Lα-Asp by the enzymatic reaction of protein L-isoaspartyl-O-methyltransferase (PIMT) in 18O water with a mass shift of 2 Da, which, in principle, enables us to distinguish Asp isomers. However, in practise, a labelled Lα-Asp signal overlaps with that of endogenous Lα-Asp, making detection challenging. Therefore, degradation of the endogenous Lα-Asp peptide by AspN and subsequent removal of AspN were performed prior to the PIMT reaction. This strategy was applied to bovine lens α-crystallin. Consequently, several Asp isomerization sites, consistent with human αA-crystallin, were identified in bovine αA-crystallin, indicating that this strategy is also effective for biological proteins. Therefore, isoAsp-Quest enables the analysis of Lβ-Asp in a straightforward and rapid workflow, which may be useful for the quality control of protein products and biomarker discovery.