Synthesis of Al3+-doping-TiO2 monodisperse microspheres and their application for phosphopeptides and glycopeptides enrichment

Abstract： Glycosylation and phosphorylation are two of the most common and important post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins, which play critical roles in regulating a variety of complex biological processes and involvement in many diseases. Due to the low abundance of phosphopeptides and glycopeptides, highly selective enrichment methods are crucial to the identification of protein phosphorylation and glycosylation by mass spectrometry (MS). Here, monodisperse uniform Al3+-doping-TiO2 mixed oxide microspheres were easily synthesized. The morphology was controlled by a sol-gel method, during the hydrothermal treatment. The obtained microspheres with uniform particle size distribution (about 1-2μm)，high surface area and improved pore structures, were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms. Al3+-doping-TiO2 was applied in enriching glycopeptides and phosphopeptides respectively or simultaneously by using different enrichment conditions, achieving selective enrichment of glycopeptides and phosphopeptides. 20 glycopeptides and 25 phosphopeptides enriched from the tryptic digest mixtures of human serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and α-casein (molar ratio of 1:1) were obviously observed with greatly improved signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. Meanwhile, the enrichment results of non-fat milk and human serum also show the enrichment selectivity from complex biological samples. This study will provide a novel insight for selective enrichment of glycopeptides and phosphopeptides in post-translational modification proteomics research.